Forests give us many useful things like paper, wood for furniture and doors, spices, dyes, rubber, gum, honey, tea, coffee, tendu leaves (for bidis), sal seed oil (used in chocolates), and medicinal herbs.
They also provide bamboo, firewood, grass, charcoal, fruits, flowers, and shelter for animals and birds.
Some forests like those in the Amazon and the Western Ghats are very rich in biodiversity, with up to 500 plant species found in a single patch.
However, due to industrialisation, about 13.9 million sq km of forest area (or 9.3% of the world’s land) was cleared between 1700 and 1995 for farming, industries, grazing, and collecting firewood.
Question for Detailed Chapter Notes - Forest Society and Colonialism
Try yourself:What is one of the major roles played by forests in the environment?
Explanation
- Forests play a crucial role in the environment by providing a habitat for wildlife.
- They are home to a diverse range of species, offering food, shelter, and breeding grounds.
- This biodiversity is vital for ecological balance and helps sustain various ecosystems.
- Forests also contribute to other ecological functions like carbon sequestration, climate regulation, and soil preservation.
- However, their primary role in relation to the options given is supporting wildlife, making them essential for maintaining biodiversity.
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Why Deforestation?
Deforestation means the cutting down or clearing of forests.
It is not a new problem—it started many centuries ago.
However, during colonial rule, deforestation became more systematic and happened on a larger scale.
Deforestation
Land to be Improved
In 1600, about one-sixth of India’s land was used for farming.
Today, nearly half of the land is under cultivation.
As population increased, more food was needed, so peasants cleared forests to grow crops.
During British rule, cultivation increased rapidly due to several reasons: 1. The British encouraged the growing of commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat, and cotton to meet European demand for food and raw materials. 2. The colonial government believed forests were unproductive and preferred to turn forest land into farmland to earn more revenue.When the valleys were full. Painting by John Dawson
Between 1880 and 1920, the area under cultivation increased by 6.7 million hectares.
While cultivation is often seen as progress, we must remember that it led to large-scale deforestation.
Sleepers on the Tracks
Timber for Ships (Early 19th Century):
By the early 1800s, oak forests in England were disappearing.
This caused a shortage of timber for building ships for the Royal Navy.
Without strong timber, British ships and their imperial power were at risk.
So, by the 1820s, the British started searching Indian forests for timber.
Within 10 years, large-scale tree cutting began, and timber was exported from India.
Timber for Railways (From 1850s):
Railways were important for colonial trade and military movement.
Wood was used as fuel for engines, and wooden sleepers were needed to hold railway tracks.
Each mile of track needed 1,760–2,000 sleepers.
From the 1860s, railways expanded quickly: a) By 1890: ~25,500 km of tracks laid b) By 1946: over 765,000 km of tracks laid
To meet timber needs: a) Thousands of trees were cut—e.g., 35,000 trees per year in Madras Presidency by the 1850s. b) The government gave contracts to individuals for timber supply. c)Contractors cut trees carelessly, leading to rapid deforestation, especially near railway tracks.
Women returning home after collecting fuelwood.
Plantations
Natural forests were cleared to create tea, coffee, and rubber plantations.
This was done to meet Europe’s growing demand for these goods.
The colonial government took control of forest lands and gave large areas to Europeanplanters at cheap prices.
These lands were enclosed, forests were cut down, and tea or coffee plants were grown instead.
Pleasure Brand Tea
Question for Detailed Chapter Notes - Forest Society and Colonialism
Try yourself:
What was one of the major reasons for deforestation in India during the colonial period?
Explanation
- Expansion of cultivation for commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat, and cotton was a major reason for deforestation during the colonial period in India.
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The Rise of Commercial Forestry
The British needed forests for ships and railways.
They feared that local people and traders would destroy forests through excessive tree cutting.
So, they invited Dietrich Brandis, a German forest expert, and made him the first Inspector General of Forests in India.
Brandis introduced a forest management system and trained people in forest conservation.
He set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864.
He helped create the Indian Forest Act in 1865, which was later amended in 1878 and 1927.
The Imperial Forest Research Institute was established at Dehradun in 1906.
The Imperial Forest School, Dehra Dun, India. (The first forestry school to be inaugurated in the British Empire)
In this system, natural forests with many types of trees were cut down.
Instead, only one type of tree was planted in straight rows — this is called a plantation.
Forest officials made working plans to decide how much area to cut and replant every year.
Forest Act of 1878:
Forests were divided into three types:
Reserved Forests – Most strictly controlled; villagers were not allowed to take anything.
Protected Forests – Some access allowed to locals.
Village Forests – Local people could collect wood for fuel or house-building.
Question for Detailed Chapter Notes - Forest Society and Colonialism
Try yourself:Indian Forest Service was set up in the year….?
Explanation
Dietrich Brandis, a German expert became the firsInspector General of Forests in India. Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864.
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How were the Lives of People Affected?
Different Ideas of a Good Forest:
Villagers wanted forests with a mix of trees to meet their daily needs like fuel, fodder, food, and leaves.
The British forest department only wanted tall, straight trees like teak and sal that were useful for making ships and railway sleepers.
So, only selected species were planted, and other trees were cut down.
How Villagers Used Forests:
Villagers collected roots, leaves, fruits, and tubers for food, especially during monsoon before harvest.
Herbs were used as medicine.
Wood was used to make farming tools like ploughs and yokes.
Bamboo was used for fences, baskets, and umbrellas.
Drying tendu leaves
A dried gourd was used as a water bottle.
Leaves were stitched into plates and cups.
The siadi creeper was used to make ropes.
The semur tree bark was used to grate vegetables.
Mahua fruit was used to make cooking oil and lamp oil.
Impact of the Forest Act on Villagers:
The Forest Act made all traditional activities illegal — cutting wood, grazing cattle, collecting fruits, roots, and hunting.
People were forced to steal wood, and forest guards took bribes if they were caught.
Women, who collected fuelwood, were especially affected and harassed.
Forest guards and police often demanded free food and troubled villagers.
Bringing grain from the threshing grounds to the field.
How did Forest Rules Affect Cultivation?
Shifting cultivation (swidden agriculture) is a traditional farming method used in Asia, Africa, and South America.
In this method, forest land is cut and burnt, and seeds are sown in the ashes after the first monsoon rains.
Crops are harvested by October–November, and the land is left fallow for 12 to 18 years to allow forests to grow back.
Mixed crops are grown, such as millets in central India and Africa, manioc in Brazil, and maize and beans in Latin America.
Local names for this practice include lading (Southeast Asia), milpa (Central America), chitemene/tavy (Africa), chena (Sri Lanka), and dhya, jhum, podu, kumri in India.
British foresters disliked shifting cultivation because they thought it damaged forests and destroyed valuable timber.
Burning the forest penda or podu plot.
It also made tax collection difficult, as the land was not permanently used.
So, the British government banned shifting cultivation.
This led to displacement of tribal communities and forced many to change their way of life or occupation.
Some communities resisted the ban through revolts and protests.
Who could Hunt?
Before forest laws, many people living near forests hunted animals like deer and birds for survival.
After the forest laws were introduced, hunting was banned, and those caught were punished for poaching.
At the same time, British officials and Indian kings hunted big animals like tigers and leopards for sport.
The little fisherman
Hunting was a royal tradition in India, especially among Mughal rulers, but under British rule, the scale of hunting increased greatly.
The British saw large wild animals as dangerous and savage, and believed that killing them would civilise India.
Rewards were given for killing wild animals like tigers, wolves, and leopards to protect farmers.
Between 1875 and 1925, over 80,000 tigers, 150,000 leopards, and 200,000 wolves were killed.
The Maharaja of Sarguja alone killed 1,157 tigers and 2,000 leopards by 1957.
A British officer, George Yule, killed 400 tigers.
Some forests were reserved only for hunting by rulers and officials.
Only later did environmentalists and conservationists begin to argue that these animals should be protected, not hunted.
New Trades, New Employment and New Services
After the forest department took control, many people lost their traditional rights, but some gained from new trade opportunities.
Several communities gave up their old occupations and started trading in forest products.
This change happened not just in India, but around the world.
For example, in Brazil, the Mundurucu people shifted from farming manioc to collecting latex from wild rubber trees to supply traders. They later moved to trading posts and became dependent on traders.
In India, trade in forest products like elephants, hides, horns, silk cocoons, ivory, bamboo, spices, gums and resins was already present during the medieval period, often through Banjaras (a nomadic trading community).
Under British rule, forest trade was strictly controlled: - The government gave European trading companies the exclusive right to trade in certain forest areas. - Local people’s activities, like grazing and hunting, were restricted.
As a result, pastoral and nomadic groups like Korava, Karacha, and Yerukula in the Madras Presidency lost their livelihoods. Some were even labelled as ‘criminal tribes’ and were forced to work in factories, mines, or plantations.
New job opportunities did not always improve people’s lives. In Assam, Santhals, Oraons, and Gonds were recruited to work on tea plantations.
They were paid very low wages, worked in bad conditions, and could not easily return to their home villages.
Rebellion in the Forest
In many parts of India and the world, forest communities rebelled against the new changes brought by the British.
These rebellions were led by local heroes, who are still remembered today in songs and stories. Examples include Siddhu and Kanu in the Santhal Parganas, Birsa Munda of Chhotanagpur and Alluri Sitarama Raju of Andhra Pradesh.
One major rebellion took place in Bastar (present-day Chhattisgarh) in 1910.
The People of Bastar
Bastar is located in the southernmost part of Chhattisgarh, bordering Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra.
The central part of Bastar lies on a plateau. - To the north is the Chhattisgarh plain. - To the south is the Godavari plain. - The Indrawati River flows from east to west through Bastar.
Bastar is home to many communities such as the Maria and Muria Gonds, Dhurwas, Bhatras, and Halbas.
These groups speak different languages but share common customs and beliefs.
People believe that the Earth gave land to each village, so they honour the Earth with offerings during agricultural festivals.
They also respect the spirits of rivers, forests, and mountains.
Each village has clearly known boundaries and takes care of the natural resources within them. - If villagers need wood from another village’s forest, they pay a small fee called devsari, dand, or man. - Some villages hire watchmen to protect the forests, and each household contributes grain to support them.
Every year, a big hunt is organised where village headmen from a pargana (cluster of villages) gather to discuss important matters, including forest concerns.
People of Bastar
The Fears of the People
1905 Proposal: The British colonial government proposed reserving two-thirds of the forest, which included stopping shifting cultivation, hunting, and collection of forest produce.
Impact on Villagers: Villages within reserved forests were forced to work for the forest department, becoming ‘forest villages’. Other villages were displaced without compensation.
Economic Hardship: Increased land rents, demands for free labor and goods, and famines in 1899-1900 and 1907-1908 exacerbated the villagers' suffering.
Resistance: Villagers, led by figures like Gunda Dhur, organized a rebellion using symbols like mango boughs and arrows. They looted bazaars, attacked colonial officials, and redistributed grain.
British Response: The British sent troops to suppress the rebellion, leading to severe reprisals including flogging and burning of villages. Gunda Dhur evaded capture, and the rebellion temporarily halted reservation work and reduced the reserved area by half.
Forest Reservation: After Independence, the practice of reserving forests for industrial use continued. In the 1970s, a proposal to replace natural sal forests with tropical pine for paper production was halted only after local protests.
Comparison: Similar issues of forest reservation and local resistance occurred in other parts of Asia, such as Indonesia.
Question for Detailed Chapter Notes - Forest Society and Colonialism
Try yourself:
What was the primary reason for the rebellion in the forests of Bastar?
Explanation
- The rebellion in the forests of Bastar was primarily sparked by the proposal to reserve two-thirds of the forests, which included stopping shifting cultivation, hunting, and collection of forest produce.
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Forest Transformations in Java
Java, now well known for rice production, was once largely covered with forests.
The Dutch were the colonial rulers in Indonesia, and their forest control laws were quite similar to those in British India.
Java was the place where the Dutch initiated forest management in Indonesia.
Like the British in India, the Dutch wanted timber from Java to build ships. Around the year 1600, Java had an estimated population of 3.4 million.
While many villages existed in the fertile plains, several communities also lived in the mountains and practised shifting cultivation.
The Woodcutters of Java
The Kalangs of Java were a community known for their skill in forest cutting and shifting cultivation.
In 1755, when the Mataram kingdom split, the 6,000 Kalang families were divided equally between the two new kingdoms due to their importance.
Their expertise was essential for harvesting teak and constructing royal palaces.
In the eighteenth century, as the Dutch took control of forests, they attempted to force the Kalangs to work for them.
In 1770, the Kalangs resisted this control by attacking a Dutch fort at Joana, but their rebellion was suppressed.
Dutch Scientific Forestry
In the 19th century, the Dutch began to focus on controlling forest territory in Java, not just the people.
They enacted forest laws that restricted villagers’ access to the forests.
Wood could only be cut for specific purposes like building boats or houses, and only from designated forests under strict supervision.
Villagers were punished for grazing cattle in young forest areas, transporting wood without a permit, or travelling on forest roads with carts or cattle.
Like in India, the Dutch needed timber for shipbuilding and railways, which led to the creation of a forest service.
Train transporting teak out of the forest – late colonial period.
In 1882 alone, 280,000 sleepers were exported from Java.
This timber production required a large amount of labour for cutting, transporting, and processing the logs.
The Dutch imposed rents on land cultivated in forests, but later exempted some villages if they supplied free labour and buffaloes—this system was called blandongdiensten.
Eventually, the Dutch paid small wages to the forest villagers instead of giving rent exemptions, but continued to restrict their right to cultivate forest land.
Samin’s Challenge
Around 1890, Surontiko Samin from Randublatung, a village in a teak forest area, began to question the state's ownership of the forest.
He argued that since the state did not create natural elements like wind, water, earth, and wood, it had no right to own them.
A widespread movement soon developed around his ideas.
Samin’s sons-in-law were among the people who helped organise the movement.
By 1907, around 3,000 families had started following Samin's ideas.
Some Saminists protested by lying down on their land when Dutch officials came to survey it.
War and Deforestation
The First and Second World Wars had a major impact on forests.
In India, forest working plans were abandoned, and the forest department cut trees freely to meet British war demands.
In Java, before the Japanese occupation, the Dutch adopted a 'scorched earth' policy by destroying sawmills and burning large teak log piles to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands.
After taking over, the Japanese exploited the forests heavily for their war industries.
Indian Munitions Board, War Timber Sleepers piled at Soolay pagoda ready for shipment,1917.
They forced forest villagers to cut down trees for them.
Many villagers took this chance to clear more forest land for cultivation.
After the war, the Indonesian forest service found it difficult to reclaim this land.
Like in India, the growing need for agricultural land led to conflict between local people and the forest department, which wanted to control and restrict access to forests.
New Developments in Forestry
Since the 1980s, many governments in Asia and Africa have realised that scientific forestry and excluding forest communities have led to conflicts.
Conservation of forests has become more important than just collecting timber.
Governments now understand that involving people living near forests is essential for forest conservation.
In India, dense forests have often survived because local villages protected them as sacred groves, called sarnas, devarakudu, kan, rai, and others.
Some villages manage their forests by patrolling them themselves, with each household taking turns, rather than relying on forest guards.
Today, local communities and environmentalists are exploring new ways to manage forests together.
Question for Detailed Chapter Notes - Forest Society and Colonialism
Try yourself:The Kalangs resisted the Dutch in
Explanation
In 1770, the Kalangs resisted by attacking a Dutch fort at Joana, but their revolt was brutally suppressed.
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Key Terms
Colonialism - The policy of acquiring and maintaining colonies, typically for economic exploitation.
Deforestation - The action of clearing a wide area of trees.
Exploitation - The action of making use of and benefiting from resources.
Ecological - Relating to or concerned with the relation of living organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
Monopoly - The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.
Surplus - An amount of something left over when requirements have been met.
Displacement - The forced movement of people from their locality or environment.
Indentured - Bound by a formal agreement to work for a specific period in exchange for passage to a new country.
Commercial - Concerned with or engaged in commerce.
Subordination - The action or state of being lower in rank or position.
Revenues - Income generated from normal business operations.
Bureaucracy - A system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.
Cultivation - The action of cultivating land or crops.
Incentives - Things that motivate or encourage someone to do something.
Epidemics - Widespread occurrences of infectious diseases in a community at a particular time.
Eviction - The action of expelling someone from a property.
Prohibited - Formally forbidden by law, rule, or other authority.
FAQs on Class 9 History Chapter 4 Notes - Forest Society and Colonialism
1. What are the main causes of deforestation in the context of colonialism?
Ans. The main causes of deforestation during the colonial period included the expansion of agriculture, the demand for timber for construction and shipbuilding, and the establishment of commercial plantations. Colonial powers prioritized resource extraction to boost their economies, leading to the large-scale clearing of forests.
2. How did commercial forestry contribute to deforestation in Java?
Ans. Commercial forestry in Java involved the systematic planting and harvesting of valuable trees, which, while seemingly sustainable, often led to the displacement of local communities and the destruction of natural forests. The focus on profit maximization resulted in the conversion of diverse forest ecosystems into monoculture plantations.
3. What role did local communities play in the forests before colonial rule?
Ans. Before colonial rule, local communities had a symbiotic relationship with the forests. They relied on forest resources for their livelihoods, practiced sustainable harvesting methods, and maintained traditional ecological knowledge. Their practices helped preserve biodiversity and the health of forest ecosystems.
4. What were the impacts of the rebellion in the forest on colonial forestry policies?
Ans. The rebellion in the forest, often a response to oppressive colonial policies, highlighted the discontent among local populations regarding land dispossession and forest exploitation. This led colonial authorities to rethink their forestry policies, sometimes resulting in the implementation of more regulated logging practices and limited concessions to local communities.
5. How have forest transformations in Java affected biodiversity?
Ans. The transformations in Java, primarily due to deforestation and commercial plantation development, have significantly reduced biodiversity. Many native species have become endangered or extinct as their habitats were destroyed, leading to a decline in ecosystem services and a loss of genetic diversity essential for resilience and sustainability.
Women returning home after collecting fuelwood.
