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.

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.

(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.