Chapter Notes

Why Deforestation?

Deforestation is the disappearance of forests. While this process began many centuries ago, it became much more systematic and widespread under colonial rule. Let's explore the key reasons for this increase in deforestation in India during the colonial period.

Land to be Improved

The British colonial government had specific ideas about how land should be used, which directly led to clearing forests.

• Colonial View of Forests: In the early nineteenth century, the colonial state viewed forests as unproductive "wilderness." They believed this land needed to be "improved" by bringing it under cultivation.
• Goals of Cultivation: By clearing forests for agriculture, the British aimed to:
  • Increase the production of agricultural goods.
  • Generate more land revenue, which would enhance the state's income.
• Encouraging Commercial Crops: The British directly promoted the farming of commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat, and cotton. These crops were in high demand in nineteenth-century Europe to feed growing cities and supply raw materials for industries.
• Rapid Expansion: As a result of these policies, the area under cultivation in India grew by 6.7 million hectares between 1880 and 1920.

Sleepers on the Tracks

The industrial needs of England, particularly for shipbuilding and railways, created an enormous new demand for timber from India's forests.

• Timber for the Royal Navy: By the early nineteenth century, the oak forests in England were disappearing. This created a crisis for the Royal Navy, which needed a regular supply of strong timber to build ships and maintain its imperial power. In the 1820s, the British began exploring India's forest resources to solve this problem.

• The Demand from Railways: The expansion of railways from the 1850s onwards created an even bigger demand for wood. Railways were essential for colonial trade and for moving troops. Wood was needed for two main purposes:

  1. Fuel: To run the steam locomotives.
  2. Sleepers: These are the wooden planks laid across railway tracks to hold them in position. Each mile of track required between 1,760 and 2,000 sleepers.

• Massive Scale of Felling: As the railway network expanded rapidly (from about 25,500 km in 1890 to over 765,000 km by 1946), tree felling increased dramatically. Contractors who were given government contracts to supply sleepers began cutting trees indiscriminately, and the forests around railway tracks quickly disappeared.

Plantations

Another major cause of deforestation was the clearing of natural forests to make way for large plantations.

• Meeting European Demand: To meet Europe's growing need for commodities like tea, coffee, and rubber, the colonial government took over vast areas of forests.
• Land for European Planters: The government gave these large forest areas to European planters at cheap rates.
• Clearing and Planting: The planters then enclosed these areas, cleared the natural forests, and planted them with a single crop, like tea or coffee.

The Rise of Commercial Forestry

The British became worried that the uncontrolled felling of trees by traders and the use of forests by local people would destroy the forests completely. Their solution was to introduce a new system of forest management.

To do this, they invited a German expert, Dietrich Brandis, and appointed him as the first Inspector General of Forests in India. Brandis introduced a system that aimed to manage forests for timber production.

• Legal Framework: Brandis believed the system needed legal sanction. He set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865.
• Training and Research: To train people in forest management, the Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at Dehradun in 1906.
• "Scientific Forestry": The system taught was called scientific forestry. However, many ecologists today do not consider it scientific at all. Its main features were:
  • Natural forests with diverse tree species were cut down.
  • In their place, one type of tree was planted in straight rows. This is known as a plantation.
  • Forest officials surveyed the land and created "working plans" to manage how much of the plantation would be cut and replanted each year.

The Forest Acts

The Indian Forest Act of 1865 was amended twice, in 1878 and 1927. The 1878 Act was particularly significant because it divided forests into three categories:

1. Reserved Forests: These were the "best" forests. Villagers could not take anything from these forests, not even for their own use.
2. Protected Forests: Villagers could take some wood for house building or fuel from these forests.
3. Village Forests: These were also accessible to villagers for limited use.

How were the Lives of People Affected?

The new forest laws and the system of commercial forestry had a severe impact on the daily lives of villagers and forest dwellers.

• Conflicting Needs: Villagers and foresters had very different ideas of a "good" forest.
  • Villagers: Wanted forests with a mixture of species to satisfy their needs for fuel, fodder, leaves, fruits, and herbs.
  • The Forest Department: Wanted tall, straight, hardwood trees like teak and sal, which were suitable for building ships and railways. They promoted these species and cut down others.
• Everyday Practices Became Illegal: After the Forest Act, many traditional activities of forest communities became illegal. This included:
  • Cutting wood for their homes.
  • Grazing their cattle.
  • Collecting fruits, roots, and other produce.
  • Hunting and fishing.
• Hardship and Corruption: People were forced to steal wood from the forests. If caught, they were at the mercy of forest guards, who often demanded bribes. Forest guards and police constables also harassed people by demanding free food.

How did Forest Rules Affect Cultivation?

One of the most significant impacts of colonialism was on the practice of shifting cultivation, also known as swidden agriculture. This traditional practice is known by many local names in India, such as jhum, penda, or podu.

• What is Shifting Cultivation? In this practice, parts of the forest are cut and burnt in rotation. Seeds are sown in the ashes, and after a few years of cultivation, the plot is left fallow for 12 to 18 years to allow the forest to regrow.
• European Foresters' View: European foresters considered this practice harmful for several reasons:
  • Land used for cultivation couldn't grow trees for railway timber.
  • They feared that the fires could spread and burn valuable timber.
  • It made it difficult for the government to calculate and collect taxes.
• The Ban and its Consequences: The colonial government decided to ban shifting cultivation. As a result, many communities were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change their occupations, while others resisted through rebellions.

Who could Hunt?

The new forest laws dramatically changed hunting practices.

• Traditional Hunting Banned: Before the laws, forest dwellers survived by hunting animals like deer and partridges. This customary practice was now prohibited, and anyone caught hunting was punished for poaching.
• Big Game Hunting as a Sport: While local people were deprived of their rights, the hunting of big game became a popular sport for British officials and Indian royalty.
• A "Civilising" Mission: The British saw large animals like tigers and wolves as signs of a "savage" society. They believed that by killing these "dangerous" animals, they would civilise India. They even offered rewards for killing them.
• Unprecedented Scale of Hunting: The scale of hunting increased so much that some species became nearly extinct. Between 1875 and 1925, over 80,000 tigers, 150,000 leopards, and 200,000 wolves were killed for rewards.

New Trades, New Employments and New Services

While the new forest management system caused hardship for many, it also created new opportunities in trade for some.

• Regulated Trade: Trade in forest products was not new, but under the British, it was completely regulated by the government. The government gave large European trading firms the sole right to trade in certain forest products in specific areas.
• Loss of Livelihoods: This regulation meant that many pastoralist and nomadic communities, like the Korava, Karacha, and Yerukula of the Madras Presidency, lost their livelihoods in grazing and hunting. Some of these communities were labeled 'criminal tribes' and forced to work in factories, mines, and plantations under government supervision.
• Exploitative Labor: New work opportunities, such as on tea plantations in Assam, did not always mean better lives. Forest communities like the Santhals, Oraons, and Gonds were recruited, but their wages were low, working conditions were terrible, and they could not easily return to their home villages.

Rebellion in the Forest

Across India and the world, forest communities rebelled against the new, oppressive laws. Leaders like Siddhu and Kanu in the Santhal Parganas, Birsa Munda of Chhotanagpur, and Alluri Sitarama Raju of Andhra Pradesh are still remembered for leading these movements. One such rebellion took place in the kingdom of Bastar in 1910.

The People of Bastar

Bastar is located in the southernmost part of Chhattisgarh. It is home to several different communities, including the Maria and Muria Gonds, Dhurwas, Bhatras, and Halbas.

• Beliefs and Customs: These communities speak different languages but share common customs and beliefs. They believe the Earth gave each village its land, and they look after it in return. They respect the spirits of the river, forest, and mountain.
• Forest Management: The local people had their own systems for managing forests. If people from one village needed wood from another's forest, they paid a small fee. Some villages even hired watchmen, with each household contributing grain for payment.

The Fears of the People

The colonial government's policies created deep resentment and fear among the people of Bastar.

• The Proposal of 1905: The colonial government proposed to reserve two-thirds of the forest, stop shifting cultivation, and ban hunting and the collection of forest produce.
• Forest Villages: Some villages were allowed to stay in the reserved forests, but only on the condition that they worked for free for the forest department, cutting trees and protecting the forest from fires. These became known as 'forest villages'. Others were displaced without any notice or compensation.
• Other Grievances: This was made worse by existing problems, such as increased land rents, demands for free labor by officials, and terrible famines in 1899-1900 and 1907-1908. The forest reservation plan was the last straw.
• The Rebellion Begins: The initiative for the rebellion was taken by the Dhurwas of the Kanger forest. While there was no single leader, Gunda Dhur from village Nethanar is remembered as an important figure. In 1910, messages for rebellion—mango boughs, a lump of earth, chillies, and arrows—began circulating between villages.
• Rebel Actions: People looted bazaars, burned and robbed the houses of officials and traders, and redistributed grain. They targeted anyone associated with the colonial state and its oppressive laws.

The British sent troops to suppress the rebellion. They surrounded rebel camps, fired on them, and then marched through villages, flogging and punishing anyone who had participated. It took three months for the British to regain control, but they never captured Gunda Dhur.

Forest Transformations in Java

Similar changes in forest management were happening in other parts of the world. In Java (now part of Indonesia), the colonial power was the Dutch. Like the British in India, the Dutch wanted timber from Java's forests to build ships.

The Woodcutters of Java

The Kalangs of Java were a community of skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators. They were so valuable that when the Mataram kingdom of Java split in 1755, the 6,000 Kalang families were divided equally between the two new kingdoms. When the Dutch gained control, they tried to make the Kalangs work for them. In 1770, the Kalangs resisted by attacking a Dutch fort, but the uprising was suppressed.

Dutch Scientific Forestry

In the nineteenth century, the Dutch introduced their own version of scientific forestry and forest laws in Java.

• Restricting Access: Villagers' access to forests was restricted. Wood could only be cut for specific purposes (like making boats) from specific forests under close supervision.
• The Blandongdiensten System: To get the labor needed to cut trees and transport logs, the Dutch first imposed rents on forest land. They then exempted some villages from these rents if they worked collectively to provide free labor and buffaloes for cutting and transporting timber. This was known as the blandongdiensten system.

Samin's Challenge

Around 1890, a movement began that questioned the very idea of state ownership of forests.

• Leader and Ideology: The movement was started by Surontiko Samin, who lived in a teak forest village. He argued that the state had not created the wind, water, earth, and wood, so it could not own them.
• Forms of Protest: By 1907, about 3,000 families were following Samin's ideas. The Saminists protested by:
  • Lying down on their land when the Dutch came to survey it.
  • Refusing to pay taxes or fines.
  • Refusing to perform labor.

War and Deforestation

The First and Second World Wars had a major impact on forests in both India and Java.

• India: The British forest department cut trees freely to meet British war needs, abandoning its own management plans.
• Java: Before the Japanese occupied the region during World War II, the Dutch followed a 'scorched earth' policy. They destroyed sawmills and burned huge piles of teak logs to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands. The Japanese then exploited the forests recklessly for their own war industries. Many villagers used this chaos to expand cultivation into the forests.

New Developments in Forestry

Since the 1980s, governments across Asia and Africa have started to change their approach to forest management.

• A Shift in Thinking: It has become clear that the policy of "scientific forestry" and keeping forest communities away from forests has led to many conflicts.
• Conservation over Timber: The goal has shifted from simply collecting timber to the conservation of forests.
• Involving Local Communities: Governments now recognize that to protect forests, the people who live near them must be involved. In many parts of India, dense forests have survived only because local communities have protected them as sacred groves (known by names like sarnas, devarakudu, or kan). Today, local communities and environmentalists are exploring new, collaborative forms of forest management.