Question

Discuss how the changes in forest management in the colonial period affected the following groups of people:

a) Shifting cultivators

b) Nomadic and pastoralist communities

c) Firms trading in timber/forest produce

d) Plantation owners

e) Kings/British officials engaged in shikar (hunting)

Answer 1

a) Shifting Cultivators – Affect of Forest Management during Colonial Period

• A decision to ban shifting cultivation was taken by the Government.
• Due to this decision of the Government, many communities living in the forests were displaced.
• Some communities resisted the changes through small and large rebellions, others had to change their occupations.

Shifting Cultivation

• Parts of forests are cut and burnt in shifting cultivation.
• To allow the forests to grow back, such plots left fallow for 12 to 18 years, after cultivating them for a couple of years.
• The crop is harvested by October-November, seeds are sown in the ashes, after the first monsoon rains.

Reason for banning shifting cultivation

• The Government found it hard to calculate taxes due to shifting cultivation.
• Moreover this practice was considered as harmful by the foresters from Europe.
• They felt that it was an obstacle for growing trees which were useful as timber for railways.
• As shifting cultivation involved burning, they were apprehensive that it could burn down timber which were valuable.

b) Nomadic and pastoralist communities

• The Pastoral Communities in India were affected in various ways due to the changes forced by the modern world.
• Their pattern of movement was affected by the laws.
• Due to more restrictions imposed on them by laws, they found it difficult to move their cattle in search of pastures.
• Due to new laws, pasture lands started shrinking, while the remaining pasture lands started deteriorating due to excessive and continuous grazing which was the result of a lack of options.
• Feeding the cattle became a permanent problem as there was a continuous short supply of fodder.
• Uncultivated land was seen as unproductive land by the British Government officials, as it could neither help in agricultural produce nor could it produce revenue.
• Therefore, in various parts of the country, Waste Land Rules were enacted in the mid-nineteenth century.
• So expansion of cultivation meant a problem for pastoralists and decline of pastures.
• In the different provinces, various Forest Acts were also being enacted by the mid-nineteenth century.
• Some forests were declared as Reserved forests through the colonial Forests Act.
• In Reserved forests, pastoralists were not allowed.
• Other forests were classified as Protected. In the protected forests, the movements of pastoralists were severely restricted, but they had some grazing rights in these forests.
• The forests which gave important forage to the cattle of the pastoralists, were now prevented from entering those forests.
• Even in the forests where they were allowed entry, there were heavy restrictions on their movements.
• Nomadic people were considered as criminals and those people who settled in one place were seen as law abiding and peaceful people, as per British colonial Government.
• The Criminal Tribes Act was passed by the colonial government in India in 1871.
• Pastoralists, traders and craftsmen were classified as criminal tribes by this act.
• After notification of the Criminal Tribes Act, these communities were forced to live in village settlements that were notified.
• For every animal that grazes pastures, the British colonial government collected tax from pastoralists.
• In India, by the mid-nineteenth century grazing tax was imposed in the majority of the pastoral tracts.
• Taxes were directly collected by the colonial government from the pastoralists, by the 1880s.
• A pass was given to each of the pastoralists.
• If a cattle herder had to enter a grazing tract, they had to pay tax and show the pass.

c) Firms trading in timber/forest produce

• Trade in forests products was not new in India.
• Adivasi communities used to trade through Banjaras (nomadic communities) in resins, gums, grasses, fibres, spices, bamboo, ivory, silk cocoons, horns, hides etc.
• After the British colonised India, trade was regulated by the colonial government.
• The sole right to trade in particular areas, in forest products were given to large trading firms which were based out of Europe. These rights were granted by the British Government.
• There were restrictions on local people.
• Due to restriction, many nomadic communities and pastoralists like Yerukula, Karacha, Korava lost their livelihoods. Some of them were branded as criminal tribes.
• Under government supervision, they were forced to work in plantations, mines and factories.

d) Plantation owners

• To meet the growing need of commodities in Europe, large areas of forests were cleared to create rubber plantations, coffee and tea plantations.
• European planters received the ownership of vast plantations at cheap rates from the British colonial Government.
• Natural forests had plenty of variety of trees which were cut down.
• Plantation consists of planting one type of tree in rows.
• The plantation area that needs to be cut every year would be decided by the forest officials after conducting a survey.

e) Kings/British officials engaged in shikar (hunting)

• The lives of forest dwellers were changed by the new forest laws.
• Many people who lived near forests or people who lived inside the forests, survived by hunting a variety of small animals, partridges and deer.
• The new forest laws prohibited them from hunting, and those who did, they were punished as poachers.
• On one hand the forest laws enforced prohibition on forest dwellers, on the other hand hunting big animals became a sport in India.
• Under colonial rule, the hunting of different animals and tigers by the royals increased to such a large extent that those animals were on the verge of extinction.
• The British saw large animals as part of savage, primitive and wild society.
• The British believed India could be civilised by killing dangerous animals.
• As large animals were a threat to cultivators, hunting down large animals, wolves, tigers were rewarded.
• From 1875 to 1925, the number of animals that were hunted down for reward were 200,000 wolves, 150,000 leopards and over 80,000 tigers. They were also seen as a sporting trophy.
• Upto 1957, the number of leopards and tigers shot dead were 2,000 and 1,157 respectively by the Sarguja Maharaj.
• 400 tigers were killed by George Yule.
• For hunting purposes, some forest areas were reserved.
• Much later, conservationists and environmentalists protested against hunting of animals and started propagating the need for conservation of animals.