Table of contents | |
Deforestation | |
Commercial Forestry | |
Forest Rebellions | |
Changes in JAVA | |
Glossary and Important Information |
Deforestation is cutting down of trees indiscriminately in a forest area. Under the colonial rule it became very systematic and extensive.
Why Deforestation
The British were worried that the use of forests by local people and the reckless felling of trees by traders would destroy forests and hence invited German expert Dietrich Brandis as first Inspector General of Forests in India.
Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865. The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up in Dehradun in 1906. Scientific forestry was taught there. In the scientific forestry system, forests with different kinds of trees were replaced by plantations. Forest management plans were made by forest officials. They planned how much of the forest had to be cut and how much had to be replanted.
The Imperial Forest Research Institute
The Forest Acts divided forests into
The villagers were dissatisfied with the Forest Acts. They were now forced to steal wood from the forests. If they were caught, they were punished.
Forest Rules and Cultivation
Shifting cultivation or swidden agriculture was the agricultural practice in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. The colonial foresters did not favour this system as it made it difficult for the government to calculate taxes. In addition, the forest officials saw in it the danger of fire and also that no trees could grow on this kind of land.
Hunting and Forest Laws : The forest laws forbade the villagers from hunting in the forests but encouraged hunting as a big sport. They felt that the wild animals were savage, wild and primitive, just like the Indian society and that it was their duty to civilise them.
New Trade and New Employment : New opportunities opened in trade as the forest department took control of the forests, e.g., the Mundurucu peoples of the Brazilian Amazon. With the colonial influence trade was completely regulated by the government. Many large European trading firms were given the sole right to trade in forest products of a particulate area. Many pastoral communities lost their means of livelihood. New opportunities of work did not always mean improved well-being for the people.
Forest communities rebelled against the changes imposed upon them. The people of Bastar were one such group. The initiative was taken by the Dhurwas of the Kanger forest where reservation first took place. The British sent troops to suppress the rebellion. It took them three months to regain control. A victory for the people of Bastar was that the work on reservation was suspended and the area was reduced to half.
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1. What is deforestation? |
2. What is commercial forestry? |
3. What are forest rebellions? |
4. How are changes in JAVA related to deforestation? |
5. What are some important concepts related to forest society and colonialism? |
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