FOREST

VERY SHORT AND MCQ

1.Which commercial crops were grown by British after deforestation?

Answer:Jute, sugar, wheat and cotton were the commercial crops grown by the British in India
to feed the growing population of Europe.

2.Why were forests considered unproductive by the British?

Answer: They considered them to be wild and wasteful. Needs to be ‘brought under cultivation
so that the land could yield agricultural products and reverse and enhance the income of the
state.

3.Who was the first Inspector General of Forests in India?

Answer: A German Forest Expert, Dietrich Brandis was the first Inspector General of Forests in
India

4.Name the forest Institute of Dehradun set up in 1906 by Brandis.

Answer: The Imperial Forest Research Institute.

5.What does ‘Scientific Forestry’ mean?

Answer: (i) Natural Forests which had lots of different types of trees were cut down.

(ii) In their place one type of tree was planted in straight rows, called as plantation. This is
known as scientific forestry.

6.Name the river which flows across Bastar from east to west.

Answer: River Indrawati

7.Name the leader who rebelled against the British.

Answer: Gunda Dhur from village Nethanar.

8.Which colonial power ruled over Indonesia?

Answer: The Dutch from Belgium.

9.Which Act was passed in 1865?

Answer: Indian Forest Act was passed in 1865

10.Who was the community of skilled forests cutters and shifting cultivators in Java?
Answer: The Kalangs of Java were a community of skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators

SHORT QUESTIONS

1.What was ‘A Scorched Earth Policy’?

Answer: In Java, just before the Japanese occupied the region, the Dutch followed a Scorched
Earth Policy, destroying Sawmills and burning huge piles of giant teak logs so that they would
not fall into Japanese hands.

2.What are the various uses of forests in our day-to-day lives?

Answer: (i) Paper is used for making books, wood is used for desks and tables, doors and
windows, dyes are used for colouring our clothes, we get spices to add to our food, the
cellophane wrapper of toffees, tendu leaf in bidis, gum, honey and coffee, tea and rubber.

(ii) Oil in chocolates comes from sal seeds, the tannin used to convert skins and hides into
leather or the herbs used for medical purposes are all derived from forests.

(iii) Forests also provide bamboo, wood for fuel, grass charcoal, packaging, fruits, flowers,
animals, birds, etc.

3.How were forest laws enacted in Java?

Answer:(i) The Dutch enacted forest laws in Java to restrict villagers’ access to forests.

(ii) Now wood cutting was done only for specific purposes like making boats, constructing
houses under close supervision, etc.

(iii) Villagers were punished for grazing cattle, transporting wood without a permit or travelling
through forests with horse carts or cattle.

4.Explain some of the common customs and beliefs of the Bastar people.

Answer: Common customs and beliefs of the Bastar people

(i) Believed that land is given by mother earth.

(ii) Respect shown to the spirits of river, forest and mountain.

(iii) All natural resources to be looked after

(iv) Anyone seen cutting forests has to pay a fee

5.What do you know about Scientific Forestry?

(ii) Forest officials surveyed the forest, estimated the area and made working plans for the
forest management.

(iii) They scientifically planned on how much of the plantation areas to cut every year. The areas
cut were then to be replanted, so that they were ready to be cut again in some years

6.How were forests classified on the basis of the Forest Act, 1878?

Answer: Classification of forests on the basis of Act of 1878:

(i) Reserved forests: The best forests were called Reserved forests. Villagers could not take
anything from these forests.

(ii) Protected forests: They were also protected by the villagers but they could collect wood from
the Protected forests.

(iii) Village forests: They were located near the villages and could be exploited by the villagers
but not for commercial purposes

7.What was the Blandongdiensten system?

Answer: (i) The Dutch first imposed rents on land being cultivated in the forest and then
exempted some villages from paying these rents, if they provided free labour and buffaloes for
cutting and transporting timber.

(ii) This system was known as Blandongdiensten system.

8.What do you know about Samin’s challenge?

Answer:(i) Surontiko Samin of a teak forest village began questioning state ownership of forests.

(ii) He argued that the state had not created the wind, water, Earth and wood, so it could not own
it.

(iii) Soon, he organised a widespread movement with the support of his sons-in-law and other
families in his village. Some Saminists protested by lying down on their land when the Dutch
came to survey it, while others refused to pay taxes or fines or perform labour.

LONG ANSWERS

1. What is shifting cultivation? Why did the Europeans decide to ban it?

Answer: In shifting cultivation, parts of forests are cut and burnt in rotation. Seeds are sown in
the ashes after the first monsoon rains. The following prompted Europeans to ban it.
(i) They regarded this practice as harmful for forests.

(ii) They felt that the land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees
for railway timber.

(iii) When a forest was burnt, there was the added danger of the flames spreading and burning
valuable timber.

(iv) Shifting cultivation also made it harder for the government to calculate taxes. Therefore, the
government decided to ban shifting cultivation.

2.Explain any five ways in which the lives of the villagers were affected by the Forest Acts.

Answer: The lives of the villagers were affected by the forest laws:

(i) Now the villagers were deprived of their customary practices like hunting, cutting, grazing
their cattle, collecting fruits etc.

(ii) One of the major impacts was on the practice of shifting cultivations or swidden agriculture.

(iii) 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.

(iv) Women who collected fuel woods were especially worried.

(v) It was common for police, constables and forest guards to harass people by demanding free
food from them.

3.Under colonial rule, why did the scale of hunting increased? How hunting pattern changed
during colonial period?

Answer: In India hunting of tigers and other wild animals became a game or source of
entertainment for the kings and nobles. But under British rule the scale of hunting increased to
such an extent that various species became almost extinct. The reasons behind this condition
are

(i) The British saw large animals as signs of a wild, primitive and savage society.

(ii) They believe that by killing dangerous animals the British would civilise India.

(iii) They gave rewards for the killing of tigers, wolves and other large animals on the grounds
that they posed a threat to cultivators.

(iv) Over 80,000 tigers, 150,000 leopards and 200,000 wolves were killed for reward in the period
1875-1925.

(v) Certain areas of forests were reserved for hunting.

Answer: The 1878 Forest Act divided forests in India into three categories: reserved, protected
and village forests. Foresters and villagers had very different ideas about a ‘good forest’.

(i) Villagers wanted forests with a mixture of species to satisfy different needs-fuel, fodder and
leaves. Villagers could not take anything from ‘reserved’ forests. For house building or fuel, they
could take wood from protected or village forests. On the other hand forest department needed
trees that could provide hard, tall and straight woods for commercial price. So, they encouraged
to plant only Teak and Sal and other trees were cut.

(ii) In forest areas people use forest products roots, leaves, fruits, tuber, etc. Almost everything
is available in the forest for their livelihood. The Forest Act meant severe hardship for them. All
their everyday practices cutting wood for their houses, grazing their cattle, collecting fruits and
roots, hunting and fishing became illegal.

(iii) Now villagers were forced to steal wood and if they were caught, they were at the mercy of
the forest-guards, who even claimed bribe from them.

(iv) Women who collected fuel wood and food were scared from the forest guards.

(v) It became common practice for police constables and forest guards to harass villagers by
demanding free food for them.

5.How did the British exploit the forests resource of India for their economic development?

Answer: Under the British colonial rule the process of deforestation for economic development
in India became systematic and extensive.

(i) By the early 19th century, oak forests in England were disappearing, British needed timber
supply for their Royal navy and they sent search parties to explore forest resources of India in
1820. Within a decade vast quantities of timber were being exported from India.

(ii) Not only Royal navy for the movement of imperial troops, the Britishers needed the
expansion of railways for their colonial trade. To run locomotives they needed wood and also
for railway tracks they needed timber supply.

(iii) Large areas of natural forests were cleared to make way for tea, coffee and rubber
plantations to meet Europe’s growing need for these commodities. For this purpose, the
Colonial Government took over the forests and gave vast areas to European planters at cheap
rates.

(iv) In the colonial period, cultivation expanded rapidly. The British directly encouraged the
production of commercial crops like jute, sugar wheat and cotton. These crops were demanded
for the consumption of urban population and also for the raw materials needed in industrial
production.
(v) The colonial power thought that forests were unproductive, so they tried to expand
agriculture by clearing forests which would enhance the revenue of the state. Between 1880 and
1920, cultivated area in India rose by 6.7 million hectares.

vi)Large area of natural forest was cleared for developing plantations.