In remote Zou villages, the habit of jhuming continues despite poor productivity. According to the 2001 census of India, around 60% of the Zou population were engaged in agricultural labour. Wet rice cultivation came into vogue around the time of India's independence. Shifting cultivators typically dwell within interior ridgetop hamlets. But permanent plow peasants among the Zous prefer settlement sites near river banks like the Tuitha and the Tuivai. Availability of cultivable land for paddy is severely limited in Manipur hill areas. Increased food production through paddy fields supported a growing population in many Zou villages. Yet food production lags behind population increase. The challenge is to escape this Malthusian trap where population prevents prosperity. As an absolute figure the Zou population is not big, but its rapid rate of growth resulted in deforestation and desertification during the post-Independence era which intensifies the rural crisis. Unlike the fertile Imphal valley, the "carrying capacity" of land in the hills is very limited. The social spill-over effect of this ecological degradation was demonstrated by the ethnic conflict of 1997–98. The conflict reduced many educated and semi-skilled Zous into economic migrants to other parts of urban India. Today, socially-mobile pockets of Zou communities live across Indian cities like Imphal, Aizawl, Shillong, Guwahati, Calcutta, Delhi and Bangalore. The Indian army and paramilitary services also employ a good number of Zous, generally with a low level of skills. But the new economy could not absorb unskilled and illiterate Zou villagers.