Chapter 4: Forest Society and Colonialism
Q.1. What is Deforestation ? What are its causes?
The disappearance of forests-destroying forest or cutting down trees is referred to as
Deforestation.
It’s causes are:-
Expansion of Agriculture :
As population increased over the centuries and the demand for food went up , peasants
extended the boundaries of cultivation, clearing forests and breaking new land.
Ship Building :
By the early nineteenth century, oak forests in England were disappearing. This created a
problem of timber supply for the Royal Navy. By the 1820s, search parties were sent to
explore the forest resources of India. Within a decade, trees were being felled on a massive
scale and vast quantities of timber were being exported from India.
Expansion of Railways :
The spread of railways from the 1850s created a new demand. Railways were essential for
colonial trade and for the movement of imperial troops. To run locomotives, wood was
needed as fuel, and to lay railway lines sleepers were essential to hold the tracks together.
Forests around the railway tracks quickly started disappearing.
Setting up of plantations :
Large areas of natural forests were also cleared to make way for tea, coffee and rubber
plantations to meet Europe’s growing need for these commodities. The colonial
government took over the forests, and gave vast areas to European planters at cheap
rates. These areas were enclosed and cleared of forests, and planted with tea or coffee.
Q.2. What are the causes for expansion of agriculture in the colonial period?
i. As population increased over the centuries and the demand for food went up ,
peasants extended the boundaries of cultivation, clearing forests and breaking new
land.
ii. The British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute,
sugar, wheat and cotton.
iii. In the early nineteenth century, the colonial state thought that forests were
unproductive. They were considered to be wilderness that had to be brought under
cultivation so that the land could yield agricultural products and revenue, and enhance
the income of the state.
Q. 3. Briefly describe the effects of expansion of agriculture during the colonial
period in India.
1. Between 1880 and 1920, cultivated area rose by 6.7 million hectares.
2. Since the British encouraged cash crops, production of food crops declined.
3. Large areas of forests were cleared to bring more areas under cultivation.
Q.3. What were the steps taken by the British government for the forest
management in India in the early period?
i) The British decided to invite a German expert, Dietrich Brandis, for advice, and made
him the first Inspector General of Forests in India.
ii)Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest
Act of 1865.
iii) The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at Dehradun in 1906. The system
they taught here was called ‘scientific forestry’.
iv) After the Forest Act was enacted in 1865, it was amended twice, once in 1878 and then
in 1927. The 1878 Act divided forests into three categories: reserved, protected and
village forests.
Q.4. How are forests classified according to the act of 1878?
The 1878 Act divided forests into three categories: reserved, protected and village forests.
Q.5. How did the villagers and foresters differ in the ideas of a good forest?
Villagers wanted forests with a mixture of species to satisfy different needs – fuel, fodder,
leaves. etc. The forest department on the other hand wanted trees which were suitable for
building ships or railways. They needed trees that could provide hardwood, and were tall and
straight. So particular species like teak and sal were promoted and others were cut.
Q.6. What are the different uses of forest products ?or How are forests useful to us?
i. In forest areas, people use forest products – roots, leaves, fruits, and tubers – for many
purposes. Fruits and tubers are nutritious to eat, especially during the monsoons before
the harvest has come in.
ii. Herbs are used for medicine, wood for agricultural implements like yokes and ploughs,
bamboo makes excellent fences and is also used to make baskets and umbrellas.
iii. A dried scooped-out gourd can be used as a portable water bottle.
iv. Almost everything is available in the forest –leaves can be stitched together to make
disposable plates and cups, the siadi (Bauhinia vahlii) creeper can be used to make
ropes, and the thorny bark of the semur (silk-cotton) tree is used to grate vegetables.
v. Oil for cooking and to light lamps can be pressed from the fruit of the mahua tree.
Q.7. How were the lives of people affected after the Forest Act of 1865?
i) The Forest Act meant severe hardship for villagers across the country. After the Act,
all their everyday practices – cutting wood for their houses, grazing their cattle,
collecting fruits and roots, hunting and fishing – became illegal.
ii) People were now forced to steal wood from the forests, and if they were caught, they
were at the mercy of the forest guards who would take bribes from them.
iii) Women who collected fuel wood were especially worried. It was also common for police
constables and forest guards to harass people by demanding free food from them.
iv. Many were forced to leave the forests and migrated to nearby cities in search of jobs. Yet
others opted new jobs
Q.8. What was shifting cultivation or swidden agriculture ?
This was a traditional agricultural practice in many parts of Asia, Africa and South
America. In shifting cultivation, parts of the forest are cut and burnt in rotation. Seeds are sown
in the ashes after the first monsoon rains, and the crop is harvested by October-November. Such
plots are cultivated for a couple of years and then left fallow for 12 to 18 years for the forest to
grow back. A mixture of crops is grown on these plots. In central India and Africa it could be
millets, in Brazil manioc, and in other parts of Latin America maize and beans.
Q.9. Why did the British government ban shifting cultivation? What was the result?
1. The British felt that land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow
trees for railway timber.
2. When a forest was burnt, there was the added danger of the flames spreading and
burning valuable timber.
3. Shifting cultivation also made it harder for the government to calculate taxes. Therefore,
the government decided to ban shifting cultivation.
4. As a result, many communities were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests.
Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions.
( How did the changes in forest management in the colonial period affect the
shifting cultivators? Write point No. 4 above and answer 7 )
Q.10. How did changes in the forest management in the colonial period affect
the firms trading in timber/forest produce ?
With the coming of the British, trade was completely regulated by the government. The British
government gave many large European trading firms the sole right to trade in the forest
products of particular areas. They cut the trees more than what the British required. Grazing
and hunting by local people were restricted.
Q.11. How did changes in the forest management in the colonial period affect
Nomadic and pastoralist communities ?
Grazing and hunting by local people were restricted. In the process, many pastoralist and
nomadic communities like the Korava, Karacha and Yerukula of the Madras Presidency lost their
livelihoods.
Some of them began to be called ‘criminal tribes’, and were forced to work instead in factories,
mines and plantations, under government supervision. ( Add answer No. 7)
Q.12. How did changes in the forest management in the colonial period affect
Plantation workers?
New opportunities of work did not always mean improved wellbeing for the people. In
Assam, both men and women from forest communities like Santhals and Oraons from
Jharkhand, and Gonds from Chhattisgarh were recruited to work on tea plantations. Their
wages were low and conditions of work were very bad. They could not return easily to their
home villages from where they had been recruited.
