FOREST SOCIETY AND COLONIALISM – Notes
- In India deforestation started many centuries ago, but it became more systematic and extensive during the British period.
- In the colonial period, cultivation increased for the production of commercial crops and also to feed the increased population.
- In the 19th century, the Britishers thought that the forests were unproductive , so more lands had to be brought under the cultivation.
- To maintain the timber supply for Royal Navy, lots of trees in India were cut and exported to England. Woods were also needed for the expansion of railways.
- The forest department hired adivasis to cut trees.
- The colonial government took over the forests and gave vast areas to European planters at cheap rates. By enclosing the areas the planters made tea and coffee plantation.
- British Government appointed German expert Dietrich Brandis as the first inspector general of forest to manage forest resources.
- In 1864, Indian forest service was set up by Dietrich Brandis and Indian forest’Act was passed in 1865.
- The Indian Forest Act, 1878, divided forest into three categories viz,reserved, protected and village forests.
- People use many forest products as food, medicine and many other necessary objects for daily life.
- Due to Forest Act enacted by British Government, people were deprived of their customary practices like cutting wood, grazing hunting, shifting cultivation.
- The colonisers believed the practice of shifting cultivation was harmful for the forests.
- Banning of shifting cultivation caused widespread displacement and change in occupations of people.
- Hunting was banned for forest dwellers by colonial rule but on the other hand they believed that killing dangerous animals would civilise India.
- The Britishers rewarded for the killing of tiger, wolves, etc. The scale of hunting increased and many animals became extinct at that time.
- In India Adivasi Communities like the Banjaras were trading the different forest products and animals. But the Britishers started to control the trade completely. Due to this many nomadic communities lost their livelihoods.
- The British Government even recognised some tribes as criminal tribes.
- People of Bastar, under the leadership of Gunda Dhur, raised voice against colonial forest policy. The protest movement turned violent, but was suppressed by British troops.
- Forest laws in India and Java were quite similar. Dutch wanted to reserve forest only for timber production to build ships.
- The Kalangas (skilled forest cutters and cultivators) resisted against Dutch control over forest. But their revolt was also suppressed.
- The Dutch introduced Blandongdiensten System, where they first imposed rents on land later exempted from rents if villages provided free labour and buffaloes.
- In 1890, Surontiko Samin of Randublatung village resisted state ownership of forest. His followers protested against Dutch by lying down on their land and refusing to pay taxes, fines or performing labour.
- The allied powers exploited the natural resources (mainly forests) and people of their colonies and won both the war. These wars had a devastating effect on the forests of India and other colonies.
- In Java, the Dutch followed a Scorched Earth Policy and destroyed saw mills and huge pile of giant teak logs to deprive the Japanese the benefits of forest.
- Scientific forestry is widely followed by governments across Asia and Africa since 1980s. They have also realised the importance of involving forest communities in conservation efforts.
- Many villagers throughout India protected the forest as sacred groves known as Sarnas, devarakudu etc.
- Some villagers are protecting their own forests. Local forest communities and environmentalists are now planning different forms of forest management.