Betul Hoshangabad Narmada Satpura Tribal Rice Farming

Betul and Hoshangabad (Narmadapuram) districts in the Satpura-Narmada zone grow rice, wheat, and soybean on the Narmada plain and Satpura plateau slopes where Gond and Korku tribal communities practice semi-subsistence rice cultivation on kharif terraces, supplemented by NTFP collection from the Satpura and Melghat forests. Hoshangabad's fertile Narmada alluvium is one of Madhya Pradesh's most productive rice areas, and the district's Tawa river dam irrigation supports double-cropping across a large area of the Chhota Tawa and Bari rivers. The Satpura Tiger Reserve in Betul-Hoshangabad is one of India's more remote tiger reserves with a significant population of tigers, leopards, sloth bears, gaur, and dhole in a mixed forest ecosystem.