The planning commission of India has identified 150 most disadvantaged (backward) districts of the country on the basis of prevalence of poverty indicated by scheduled caste and scheduled tribes (SC/ST) population, agricultural productivity per worker and agricultural wage rate. An overlay of the map of these districts over the soil and land degradation map of India brings out that most of selected districts are geographically concentrated in the regions with either inhospitable terrain and/or degraded land. Many of these are regions where forest has been denuded for cultivation purpose and is inhabited mostly by tribal.