India And The Contemporary World I Chapter 4 Forest Society And Colonialism

(i)Shifting Cultivators: Colonial rulers decided to ban shifting cultivation as it made harder for the government to calculate taxes. As a result, a number of communities, who used to do shifting cultivation, were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions.

(ii)Nomadic and pastoralist communities: The worst suffers were nomadic and pastroralist communities. The British Government declared some forests as reserved, some others as protected. This limited their access to the forest. They could not graze their herds in forest and they could not collect forest produce like, fruits, roots and fuel and timber. For medicines they could not collect the herbs. They had to give up hunting and fishing in the forest areas.

(iii)Nomadic and pastoralist communities: The colonial rule affected the timber trading in many ways. First the British Government enacted rules for forest reservation. Under this rule, people were not allowed to cut trees and collect timber from forest. Secondly, by the early 19th century, oak forests in England were disappearing. This created a problem of timber supply for Royal Navy. Third, now the people were not allowed to get other forest products like ivory, silk, coconuts, bamboo, spices, resins, gum etc. for trading. Fourthly, only a few European trading firms were given the right to trade in the forest products of particular areas. General firms had to suffer owing to this measure.

(iv)Plantation owners: The concept of plantation agriculture emerged in India with the colonial rule. The owners of the plantation fields were mostly Europeans. Therefore, rules and regulations regarding the plantation were made by keeping in view the interest of the Europeans.

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 commodieties. 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. The planters were given a free hand to manage and regulate the farms. The labourers were exploited to the hilt and were paid low wages.

(V)Kings / British officials engaged in Shikar: Under colonial rule, the scale of hunting increased to such an extent that various species became almost extinct. The British saw large animals as signs of a wild, primitive and savage society. They believed that by killing dangerous animals the British would civilise India. They gave rewards for the killing of tigers, wolves and other large animals on the grounds that they posed a threat to cultivators. Over 80,000 tigers, 150,000 leopards and 200,000 wolve were killed for reward in period 1875-1925. Gradually the tiger came to be seen as a sporting trophy. The Maharaja of Sarguja alone shot 1,157 tigers and 2,000 leopards up to 1957. A British administrator, George Yule, killed 400 tigers. Initially certain areas of forests were reserved for hunting. Only much later did the environmentalists and conservators begin to argue that all these species of animals needed to be protected and not killed.

Apart from various dissimilarities, there were many similarities in the colonial management of the forests in Bastar and Java in Indonesia which are described below:

(i) Both were under the colonial rule.

(ii) For the forest management forest, Acts were implemented.

(iii) The traditional local people were debarred from the benefit of forests.

(iv) Scientific forestry was implemented.

Railways: During 19th century India was industrially lagging behind. Therefore, in the development of communication wood played a vital role. The first railway track was laid in 1853 in India. Wood was used as fuel to run locomotives and sleepers were required for tracks to hold them together tightly. As per estimate around 2000 sleepers were rquired to lay down only a mile of railway track. Thus, it can be said that, in the decline of forest resources, railway played a vital role in India.

Shipbuilding: As we know that wood is the raw material which is used in shipbuilding. In the 19th century, sea was the main route of trade and commerce. By 19th century, oak forests in England started disappearing. This created a severe problem of timber supply for the Royal Navy. For this reason in 1820, a timber search team was sent to explore the forest resources in India. Within a decade, trees were being felled on a massive scale because vast quantities of timber exported from India to England.

Agricultural Expansion: After the advent of the Europeans especially the British, the exploitation of forest area increased. In order to supplement the need of food for the increasing population led to the rapid expansion of agricultural land. There were numerous reasons for this. They thought the forest as useless and so encouraged agriculture for revenue as well as to increase their income. Due to the increase in the demands of commercial crops required for industries, thus, the production increased as well as the cultivation area between 1880 and 1920 rose by 6.7 million hectares indicating progress in agriculture.

Adivasis and other peasant users: The British Government imposed certain forest laws in India but Adivasis and other peasant users were able to dodge laws by dubious means. They stole wood from the forest and grazed their cattle stealthy. If they were caught they bribed the forest guards. Even women continued to collect firewood. The police officials and forest guards demanded favours from the Adivasis and peasant users for illegal felling of trees etc.

D.

Disapperance of forests

A.

Timber

C.

Tea

B.

1864

A.

Dehradun

C.

Reserved forests

A.

Chena

B.

George Yule

D.

Chhatisgarh.

B.

1910

A.

1865

D.

All of these

A.

Birsa Munda

A.

Gunda Dhur

C.

Dutch

D.

Indramati

D.

All of these

A.

Reserved forests

C.

Teak and Sal

Dyes, gum and honey are three forest products.

For tea, coffee and rubber crops, the Indian forests were cleared to meet the demands of Europeans.

A German expert, Dyetrich Brandis was appointed as the First Inspector General of forests in India.

At Dehradun, in the year 1906, the Imperial Forest Research Institute was established.

The characteristics of shifting cultivation are described below:
(i)In shifting cultivation, parts of the forest are cut and burnt in rotation.
(ii)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.
(iii)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.

European foresters regarded shifting cultivation as harmful for the forests for the following reasons:
(i) They felt that land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees for railway timber.

(ii) When a forest was burnt, there was the added danger of the flames spreading and burning valuable timber.
(iii) Shifting cultivation also made it harder for the government to calculate taxes. Therefore, the government decided to ban shifting cultivation.

9.3% of total forest area of world disappeared between 1700 and 1995.

Devsari 

Gunda Dhur was the leader of Bastar Forest movement.

The Kalangs of Java were a community of skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators.

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Forests are not only directly related with our livelihood but they have indirect link as well. Forests help in checking soil erosion, cleans the air and provides a lot of nutrients for the land to increase productivity of land.

The reasons:
(i)In many cases, across India, from Mizoram to Kerala, dense forests have survived only because villages protected them in sacred groves known as sarnas, devarakudu, kan, rai, etc.

(ii)Some villages have been patrolling their own forests, with each household taking it in turns, instead of leaving it to the forest guards.

The uses:
(i) Forests provide us lot of herbs and shrubs which are generally used to make medicine.

(ii) Forests provide us a lot of wood which is very much necessary to make furniture of our houses.

A number of different communities live in Bastar such as Maria and Muria Gonds, Dhurwas, Bhatras and Halbas.

Baigas were a forest community of Central India.

The implication of the Forest Act:
(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 fuelwood were especially worried. It was also common for police constables and forest guards to harass people by demanding free food from them.

The suggestions:
(i)Dietrich Brandis suggested that a proper system had to be introduced to manage the forests and people had to be trained in the science of conservation. This system would need legal sanction.
(ii)Rules about the use of forest resources had to be framed.
(iii)Felling of trees and grazing had to be restricted so that forests could be preserved for timber production.
(iv)Anybody who cut trees without following the system had to be punished.
(v)So 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 at Dehradun in 1906. The system they taught here was called ‘scientific forestry’.

In the colonial period, cultivation expanded rapidly for a variety of reasons.
(i)First, the British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat and cotton. The demand for these crops increased in nineteenth-century Europe where foodgrains were needed to feed the growing urban population and raw materials were required for industrial production.
(ii)Second, 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. 

Following are the characteristics of scientific forestry:
(i)In scientific forestry, 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. This is called a plantation.
(iii)Forest officials surveyed the forests, estimated the area under different types of trees, and made working plans for forest management.
(iv)They planned how much of the plantation area to cut every year.
(v)The area cut was then to be replanted so that it was ready to be cut again in some years.

With the coming of the British, trade was completely regulated by the government: 
(i)The British government gave many large European trading firms the sole right to trade in the forest products of particular areas.
(ii)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.
(iii)Some of them began to be called ‘criminal tribes’, and were forced to work instead in factories, mines and plantations, under government supervision.

The reasons: 

(i)The colonial government proposed to reserve two-thirds of the forest in 1905, and stop shifting cultivation, hunting and collection of forest produce, the people of Bastar were very worried.

(ii)Some villages were allowed to stay on in the reserved forests on the condition that they worked free for the forest department in cutting and transporting trees, and protecting the forest from fires. Subsequently, these came to be known as ‘forest villages’.

(iii)People of other villages were displaced without any notice or compensation. For long, villagers had been suffering from increased land rents and frequent demands for free labour and goods by colonial officials.

New opportunities of work did not always mean improved wellbeing for the people due to following reasons:
(i)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.
(ii)Their wages were low and conditions of work were very bad.
(iii)They could not return easily to their home villages from where they had been recruited.

The Dutch first imposed rents on land being cultivated in the forest and then exempted some villages from these rents if they worked collectively to provide free labour and buffaloes for cutting and transporting timber. This was known as the blandongdiensten system. 

The provisions:
(i)Dutch's forest laws in Java restricted villagers’ access to forests.
(ii)Wood could only be cut for specified purposes like making river boats or constructing houses, and only from specific forests under close supervision.
(iii)Villagers were punished for grazing cattle in young stands, transporting wood without a permit, or travelling on forest roads with horse carts or cattle.

The Kalangs of Java were a community of skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators.
(i)They were so valuable that in 1755 when the Mataram kingdom of Java split, the 6,000 Kalang families were equally divided between the two kingdoms.
(ii)Without their expertise, it would have been difficult to harvest teak and for the kings to build their palaces.
(iii)When the Dutch began to gain control over the forests in the eighteenth century, they tried to make the Kalangs work under them.

The usage of various forest product by the people in forest areas are described below:
(i) 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.