THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

to profit directly from cardamom cultivation, the increased tree
coverage and the possibilities for wage labour at harvest time were
starting to make a contribution to the quality of life in Tamaphok.
Another new crop which was being planted was tea. Unlike Ilam
(where tea and potatoes were both being planted as cash crops on land
which had previously produced staple crops) this too was being planted
in otherwise uncultivated areas (generally at higher a1 i t i tudes), again
by richer men with land to spare. However, unlike cardamom, most of the
civB bFiri being planted required the clearing of forest cover first.
Tea planting did not appear to have been going so successfully, because
the shade requirements of the growing plants were not adequately met.
One man's plants had all died because of inadequate shade. However, we
met a Brahmin in Dhankuta who was involved in a consorti~lm planning
larger plantations in Tamaphok. He saw the panchyat as ideally located
(at the edge of three districts) to be a model for the introduction of
this cash crop, and thought that the wage labour it provided would
further boost the local economy. Whether his predictions were to be
fulf illed or not, tea looked like having a greater role in the economy
of Tamaphok in the future.
There was thus perhaps a different attitude developing towards
alBi-ci b6ri as 'cultivated forests' compared to the wild forests at
the top and bottom of the valley to be described in the next section.
As forests brought into the domestic domain, we wondered if they were
becoming a less threatening entity, something recognised more as the
product of human agency, If so, this had imp1 icat ions for resource use
in the future.
Other trees were found around the edges of kheT and m. These