Page 67 - SST Class 04

North-eastern States

In the north-east of India are located seven states, known as Seven Sisters . Five of these
are located in hills, so we shall study them in this lesson. The north-eastern states
included among Seven Sisters are : Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland,

Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam.

Inhabited by tribals, the five hilly states in North-east India have their unique
lifestyles, cultures, traditions, languages and dialects. People are mainly farmers and
craftsmen. They practise jhoom , a type of farming technique, in which they clear a
forest land for farming and abandon it after two-three years. This farming technique
causes soil erosion.

Arunachal Pradesh
Itanagar is the capital of this state. The Brahmaputra River
enters India in this state. The chief tribe living here is Bodo .
The chief crops grown here include rice, maize, millets,
wheat and mustard.

It rains much here, so people make their houses on bamboos
above the ground to protect themselves from rainwater and
snakes.
House on bamboo
Meghalaya

Meghalaya is the rainiest state of India, and Mawsynram is the rainiest place in the
world. The capital of this state is Shillong . The chief tribe living here is Garo . People
mainly grow the crops of rice, potato, pineapple, orange, sugarcane and jute.

Nagaland

Kohima is the capital of this state. People here mainly belong
to the Naga tribe; they are chiefly hunters and farmers. They

are also excellent craftsmen who make different articles from
bamboo, cane and wood. Their traditional dress is very
colourful. They dance in groups.
Naga dance

Manipur
Imphal is the capital of this state. This state is famous for
lakes. Manipuri is the popular classical dance here. People

grow rice, pineapple and orange.

Manipuri dance

India : Life in Northern Mountains 67