Explain the Hill Area Development Programme.

Hill Area Development Programmes wereinitiated during the Fifth Five Year Plan covering15 districts of India and mainly it covered all the hilly districts of Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand), Darjeelingdistrict of West Bengal,Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu andMikir Hill and North Cachar Hills of Assam.The National Committee on theDevelopment of Backward Area in the year 1981recommended that all the hilly areas in India, which have a height above 600 meters and are notcovered under tribal sub-plan, should be treated as ‘backward hill areas’.

The detailed plans for the development of hillareas were formulated, keeping in view their topographical, social, economic andecologicalconditions. These programmes aimed at nurturing and developing the indigenous or traditional resources of the hillareas through the development in areas like plantation, horticulture, animal husbandry,agriculture, forestry poultry, and small-scale cottage and villageindustry.