Forest Society And Colonialism

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The British were worried that the use of forests by local people and the reckless felling of trees by traders would destroy forests and hence invited German expert Dietrich Brandis as first Inspector General of Forests in India.

1. Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of1865.
2. The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up in Dehradun in 1906. Scientific forestry was taught there.
3. In the scientific forestry system, forests with different kinds of trees were replaced by plantations.
4. Forest management plans were made by forest officials. 
5. They planned how much of the forest had to be cut and how much had to be replanted.
6. Foresters and villagers had very different ideas.
7. Villagers wanted forests with a mixture of species to satisfy different needs ñ fuel, fodder, leaves.
8. The forest department, on the other hand, wanted trees which were suitable for building ships or railways.
9. The Forest Acts divided forests into three categories.
   1. Reserved forests
   2. Protected forests
   3. Village forests

1. Shifting cultivation or Sweden agriculture was the agricultural practice in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America.
2. The colonial foresters did not favour this system as it made it difficult for the government to calculate taxes.
3. In addition, the forest officials saw in it the danger of fire and also that no trees could grow on this kind of land.

1. New opportunities opened in the trade as the forest department took control of the forests, e.g., the Mundurucu peoples of the Brazilian Amazon.
2. With the colonial influence, trade was completely regulated by the government.
3. Many large European trading firms were given the sole right to trade in forest products of a particulate area.
4. Many pastoral communities lost their means of livelihood.
5. New opportunities of work did not always mean improved well-being for the people.

The forest laws forbade the villagers from hunting in the forests but encouraged hunting as a big sport.

They felt that the wild animals were savage, wild and primitive, just like the Indian society and that it was their duty to civilise them.