The Development Of Indian Forests During The British Colonial Period(1864-1947)

When the British government officially took over the Indian colonies in the mid-19 th century,the forest resources of the British mainland were almost exhausted and it was difficult to meet the demand of timber for national development.There are four main reasons for the depletion of native forest resources in the Britain: the first reason is the demand of timber for building houses;the second reason is to reclaim more extensive arable land and pastures;the third is the demand of wood from industrial production;and the fourth is the demand for wood in the shipbuilding industry.Under the comprehensive effect of these reasons,the forest coverage of the Britain has been greatly reduced,and the production of wood is more difficult to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding British Empire.The British government began the plundered development of Indian forests after officially taking over the Indian colonies.Before the British invaded India,however,Indian society has maintained a traditional resource utilization model centered on the caste system.Although there are also conditions in which the rulers deforested due to agricultural expansion and wars,in general,the ancient Indian rulers established the development of the state control and protection system and the non-violent ethical norms of Buddhism and Jain protection of Indian forests.It has had a profound impact.The British government's economic exploitation of the Indian forests is in conflict with the traditional Indian resource utilization model,which has had an immeasurable impact on Indian forests and Indian society.The British colonists developed the Indian forest mainly for the following two purposes: one is to build a railway;the other is to support British military activities.In the construction of railways,the purpose of developing forests is mainly to obtain suitable timber for making sleepers or as a power fuel for trains.However,due to the poor supervision of the colonial government,the deforestation of Indian forests not only wastes many forest resources but also has many negative impacts on India's ecological environment and the health of the Indian people.In addition,in the military activities,especially the construction of warships,the Indian forests have been extensively developed by the colonial government,consuming a large amount of forest resources in India.There are reasons for the British government to be able to develop Indian forests: mainly the influence of Christian thought guided by anthropocentrism and the British government's policy of promoting forest commercialization and agricultural expansion.In the face of the negative impact of over-exploitation of forests,the British colonial government has adopted a series of forest policies and forest laws to strengthen the management of forest resource development.At the same time,the colonial government also promoted the nationalization of forests and established reserve forests to realize the government's monopoly on forest resources.Therefore,the Indian forest policy is characterized by the state's monopoly on forest development and restrictions on the forest use rights of the Indian people.But the colonial government's forest policy has harmed the vital interests of the Indian people and led to peasant rebellion.Although the forestry policy of the colonial government promoted the scientific and modernization of the forest management in India,it led to the emergence and development of “imperial forestry” based on the Indian forestry development management policy.However,this series of policy bills was based on restricting or even depriving Indian farmers of traditional forest use rights.Therefore,the Indian people initiated various forms of resistance movements to counter the forest development management policies promoted by the colonial government.In addition,the British colonizers increased the intensity and scale of the development of Indian forests,resulting in a huge change in India's ecological environment,causing natural disasters such as soil erosion,water shortage and drought,which adversely affected the economic and social development of British India.