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Social Scientist
The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in IndiaAuthor(s): Arun
BandopadhyaySource: Social Scientist, Vol. 38, No. 1/2 (Jan. -
Feb., 2010), pp. 53-76Published by: Social ScientistStable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25621956 .Accessed: 30/03/2014
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
The necessity of a vigorous forest policy was.. .strongly
indicated from
the earliest days of British occupation of India, but it was
not
understood; and questions which were considered of more
immediate
importance pressed its claim into the background. - B.
Ribbentrop, Forestry in British India
(Calcutta, 1900; reprint, New Delhi. 1989), p.65.
Without their knowledge, advocates of joint forest management
(JFM) are, in effect, reviving and reaffirming Dietrich Brandis's
vision for
Indian forestry. Striking parallels can be seen between the
ideas of Brandis and the ideas underlying the successful
application of JFM in
West Bengal. - Ramachandra Guha,"Dietrich Brandis and Indian
Forestry:
A Vision Revisited and Reaffirmed
Forest policies in India have recendy been a subject matter of
prolonged discussion among social scientists including historians,
economists,
sociologists and anthropologists. While much of this discussion
centres on the post-colonial era, a considerable part of it is also
devoted to the colonial period. The two views quoted at the
beginning of this essay indicate the range of the debate and its
implications. However, since
most of the studies view the formation and evolution of forest
policies in colonial India in isolation, they fail to relate it
both with the broader historical issues of the day and their legacy
in the post-colonial era. Part of the failure is rooted in the
absence of a detailed study of the evolution of forest policies in
the regional context from the multiple ideas and legal discourses
involved in the process.
In the context of these pre-occupations of environmental history
at
large, I propose to make a study in this paper on the evolution
of forest
policies in Madras and Bengal in a comparative historical
framework. In this study, the entry point is the colonial era, but
it is then extended well into the post-colonial era. In the first
part, I have touched very briefly on the questions related to the
colonial legacy, chronology and general issues of the forest
policies in India, taking nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a
whole. In the second part, I have more elaborately dwelt on a few
issues of the debate on the making of colonial forest policies
in
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Social Scientist
Madras and Bengal, especially issues bearing on the nature of
colonial forestry and people's participation in it. In the third
part, I have traced the brief history of
'village forestry' in post-colonial South Asia, with special
reference to Tamilnadu and West Bengal. In the fourth part, I have
very briefly taken up the ecological, technological and
participatory issues of post-colonial forest policies to evaluate
the apparent signs of continuity and discontinuity. The colonial
legacy is
critically judged in this context. The paper ends with a
concluding note, urging for a larger historical framework for the
analysis of forest policies in India,
highlighting the possibility of a comparative study in
environmental history.
I This part begins with a disclaimer. We are not making here a
detailed study of the forest policies of any part of India either
in the colonial or post-colonial period.
We are more concerned here about identifying and analysing the
colonial legacy of forest policies, especially for the later stages
of their development. It is assumed here that colonial watershed is
an important marker in the evolution of forest policies in India,
when compared with the pre-colonial era. Perceptions of the state
towards the forests began to change radically from the arrival of
British colonial interests in India in the late eighteenth century,
"when forests were
increasingly viewed as an asset of the state with great
commercial potential"2. However, establishing control of the state
over the forests was not easy: there were administrative
difficulties and various types of usage rights of the communities
over the forests. Seen from a post-colonial framework, the search
for a balance between the rights of the state and communities over
forests has been stated to be the right focus of forest policies
and legislation in India. One
argument as propounded by Ramachandra Guha even finds its
replica in the views of Dietrich Brandis, the first Inspector
General of Forests in India, on "a collaborative relationship
between the state and local communities" in forest
management3. The colonial forest policies in India were,
therefore, chequered as they
developed over a century and half. Before the general issues and
problems tackled by them are considered, it would be worthwhile to
look at the chronology of their evolution. The growth of the forest
policies in India was extraordinarily slow. According to Stebbing,
the writer of the three volumes of The Forests of India (London,
1922-27), the slow progress was due td the confinement of
"scientific knowledge amongst European officials... almost
entirely to the
members of the medical profession". Ribbentrop thinks a mental
bloc amongst the early administrators was responsible for the
delay, as "forests were
considered as an obstruction to agriculture rather than
otherwise, and
consequently a bar to the prosperity of the Empire"4. There were
at least three
distinct phases of colonial forest policies in India, one
covering the period from
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
1796-1850, the second from the 1850s to the 1880s, and the third
from 1894 to
1947. For the post-colonial era, there are at least two distinct
phases, one
covering the period from the1950s to the 1970s and the other
from the 1980s
onwards.
The chronology of the first colonial phase (1796-1850):
Date Event Personality/Feaures 1796 British Occupation of
Malabar Teak still regarded as private
Property 1806 First Conservator of Forest for Captain Watson
for Malabar-Travancore 1820s Plantation against Nathaniel
Wallich, Director,
deforestation in Bengal Calcutta Botanical Gardens &
Member, The Asiatic Society of Bengal
1823 Conservatorship in Opposition of Teak merchants Malabar
abolished
1831-47 Steps were initiated for change Dr Gibson appointed by
Bombay Government as Conservator of Forests in 1847
1847-50 Information regarding the effect Required by the Court
of of trees on climate and Directors and the Governor-General
productiveness of India
(Source: Ribbentrop, op. cit)
Chronology of the Forest Policies in the second Colonial phase
(1850s-1880s)
Date Event Personality/Feaures 1852 Annexation of Pegu (Burma)
Dr McClelland appointed
Superintendent 1855 Memorandum of the GOI on Lord Dalhousie
Forest Conservancy 1856 Superintendent of Forests in Pegu
Dietriech Brandis 1856 Conservator of Forests in Madras Dr Cleghorn
1864 Inspector-General of Forests in India Dietriech Brandis
1865 Forest Act VII of 1865 First Forest legislation in India
1878 Forest Act VII of 1878 Reserved & Protected Forests
in all areas except Madras 1882 Madras Forest Act of 1882
Reserved Forests, Reserved Lands
and Open Forests (Source: Ribbentrop & V.PAgarwala, Forests
in India)
Chronology of the Forest Policies in the third Colonial Phase
(1894-1947):
Date Event Personality/Feaures 1894 Forest Policy of 1894, with
a definite Dr Voelcker
for serving the agricultural interests
directly 1906 Imperial Forest Research Institute, Beginning of
Forest Working
Dehra Dun Plan under I.G of Forests 1909 Royal Commission on
decentralisation Beginning of separate Working
Plan under a Conservator
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Social Scientist
1921-22 Forests became a "transferred" subject Indianisation of
IFS begins 1935 Forests became entirely the concern IGF was to
concern only with
of the Provinces general issues of Forestry 1939-47 War-time and
Post-War Policies Excessive Felling of Private
Forests and their control
(Source: Same)
Chronology of the first Post-colonial phase (1950s-1970s):
Date Event Personality/Feaures 1952 National Forest Policy
Enlarging the Forest Policy of 1894
on the basis of "paramount national need" (complementary land
use)
1953-55 Abolition of zamindari Control, organisation and
management of erstwhile private forests
1950s "Vana Mahotsava" & Two types of wastelands "Grow More
Food" appropriation
1960s "Farm Forestry" & Partial involvement of farmers,
"Social Forestry" keeping them away from
management initiative 1970 National Commission Production of
industrial wood as a
on Agriculture raison d'etre for the existence of forests
1972 The first Forest Protection Committee A.K.Banerjee, an IFS
Officer,
(FPC) formed in Arabari in initiated the outlines of JFM West
Bengal
(Source: Buddhadev Chaudhuri, Forest and Forest Development in
India)
Chronology of the second post-colonial phase (1980s-1990s):
Date Event Personality/Feaures 1980 Forest Conservation Forest
includes any lands containing
Act, 1980 trees or shrubs or pasture lands
1988 National Forest Policy, A new strategy for forest 1988
conservation, sustainability and
rudimentary people's participation was envisaged
1992 National Conservation Afforestation of common lands by
Strategy 8c Policy Statement Local Communities and their
involvement for the protection of
existing forests
(Source: Same & Hiremath et al (eds), All about Draft Forest
BUI & Forest Lands)
The saga of forest legislation in colonial and post-colonial
India, when studied in
a long time framework, may highlight a few general issues, some
of which are
repetitive and some historically unique. Four such broad issues
can be identified.
1. The material interests of the state, especially the wood
requirements for
ship-building, railways, government departments and industries,
were the
main driving force for the forest policies of the colonial
state, and for a
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
considerable degree even for the national state. The conflict
and collaboration of private bodies came largely in the context of
sharing of
profits. 2. There is a long history of the desiccationist
discourse both in the colonial
and post-colonial periods. While in the colonial period,
conservation of forests was often linked with the change of
rainfall and climate4, it has been
increasingly connected in post-colonial era with the wider issue
of environment and sustainability.
3. In the forest policy formulation process, the colonial
bureaucracy was
often in conflict with their respective departments. The
conflict between the forest and revenue departments in colonial
India is well known6.
Agriculture and Industry's priorities are also often emphasised
in the post colonial period. Much of the legal debates and
discourses in the framing of forest policies should be read in this
context.
4. Different kinds of access of people, both residing in the
forests and in the
neighbouring villages, are age-old. Imposition of regulation for
the reserved and protected forests of various kinds and limitation
of the rights and privileges of people in other forests naturally
led to sporadic conflicts between the state and the communities.
However, the involvement of communities in the protection and
management of forests
- the so-called communal forests in the past and social forests
and JFM in the present
- is sometimes felt necessary from the point of view of state,
dominant groups at society and people at large. The impact of
policies, communities and
participation requires careful investigation in this
context.
II Since the substantial part of this paper is concerned with
the colonial legacy of the forest policies in India, it is better
to concentrate on a few concrete issues on the nature of colonial
forestry and people's participation as they developed in Madras and
Bengal. The Madras debate refers to the peculiar circumstances of
the passing of Madras Forest Act of 1882, thereby giving scope for
a re evaluation of Dietrich Brandis as a precursor of JFM, as
advocated by Ramachandra Guha. The Bengal case provides materials
for critical
investigation of scientific forestry and the circumstances
leading to the Forest
Department reaching out to the people in the district of
Jalpaiguri. The Forest Act of 1865 provided the legal sanction to
the forest
administration in various provinces of India and empowered the
colonial state to acquire monopolistic control over India7. It
categorised the Indian forest
landscape into 'reserved forests' and 'unreserved forests', and
urged the
provinces to follow it. Most of the provinces accepted the Act
but the Madras Government opposed the implementation of the Act "on
the ground that it
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would negatively affect the communal rights and privileges of
the people"8. Most of the collectors of the Presidency also opposed
it.
These policy debates in Madras have been identified by Guha
elsewhere9 as
annexationist (represented by Baden Powell), populist
(represented by Madras
Government) and pragmatic (represented by Brandis). However, he
developed this idea later in this way:
Brandis's faith in the role and capacity of local institutions
in forest
management was perhaps most clearly evident in his larger vision
of Indian forestry. Even as he was consolidating control of the
state over
valuable forest areas, he was also proposing the creation of an
extensive,
parallel system of communal forests for village use. A series of
reports and memoranda illustrate how the IGF tried for more than a
decade to
persuade the colonial government that a strong system of village
forests was indispensable to the long-term success of state
forestry10.
However, the exact role of Brandis in the framing of the forest
policies in
Madras can be evaluated from the following narrative. In
accordance with Government of India's instructions to formulate a
more effective legal mechanism in Madras, Brandis prepared a Forest
Draft Bill in 1869 and
circulated it among the collectors. Majority of the collectors
opposed the Draft
Bill and argued that it would deprive the livelihoods of the
people in the forests
by restricting the customary access to the resources. The main
reason for the revenue officials, opposition was that it did not
recognise the powers of the Revenue Department in forest
management. Commenting on the nature of
forest tenure in the Madras Presidency, the Board of revenue
commented in
1871: Here forests are and always have been common property, no
restrictions
except that of taxes, like the Moturpha and Pulaari, was ever
imposed on
the people prior to creation of the Forest department and such
taxes no
more indicate that the forests belong to the state.11
In spite of the rejection of the Forest Act of 1865 and the
Draft Bill of 1869, the Government of India continued to press upon
for the forest legislation in the
Madras Presidency. Two forest conferences were held, one at
Allahabad and the
other at Simla. Baden Powell argued in Allahabad Conference that
a very large
proportion of forests were admitted to be the absolute property
of the state.
"The State had not, it is true, exercised that full right; the
forest was left open to
any one who chose to use it, but the right was there''12 Another
forest conference
was held in Simla under the chairmanship of Dr Brandis. Here
many forest
officials held the view that forests were public property and
that they should be
managed by the state for public welfare. Some of them advocated
that the village communities had not the capacity to manage forests
in India. It is important to
note what Brandis himself wrote:
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
If communal forests are created, their administration would have
to be in the hands of the (forest) department, for village
communities in India cannot at present be expected to be
sufficiendy alive to their own interests.13
The main theme of the legal debate was on the nature of people's
rights in forests. Here Brandis's view did not differ much from
Baden Powell's. For
Brandis, the forest rights were inherendy limited in nature and
could only be exercised as long as the waste lands and forests
provided the sources. He pointed out that forest usage in India
existed in the form of user rights but not as
property rights. He argued, Villagers who from time immemorial
were accustomed to cut and graze in the nearest jungle lands did
not acquire a right by prescription,.. .that the state had not
exercised its full rights over the forests, which were left open to
anyone who chose to use them; but the right of the state was
unimpaired...14 It is important to note that the Governor of
Madras Presidency objected to
the Bill not on the ground of communal rights but that of
private rights: I believe that this Bill, if passed, will in this
Presidency, give rise to grave
^dissatisfaction and will create serious disaffection. I believe
that it will do so not because of the native people are averse to
the maintenance and
protection of forests, but because the basis and principle of
the Bill is the ultimate extinction of all private rights in or
over forests or waste lands and their absorption by the
Government15.
It is possible to argue that the Governor of Madras as well as
some of the collectors, especially of the southern districts, were
partly guided by the
opposition of the Mirasidars who were still fighting their last
batties. The Government of India was during this time taking a
strong view against
the Madras Government. The Secretary to Gol, Revenue and
Agriculture was adamant to demarcate the forest lands of Madras as
State forests on the one hand and forests to "be protected and
improved by the State and under the control of the State" on the
other. The Secretary to Gol, Home Department who
happens to no less a person than Mr A.O.Hume, was furious about
the financial
implications of the Madras dilemma: But we are helpless and
hopeless; and the only apparent remedy is a heroic one, neither
more nor less than to take advantage of the existing great
financial difficulties to abolish the Governorship of Madras and
Bombay and subordinate those provinces to the Government of India
in the same
way that Bengal is subordinated. Give us right to interfere and
issue orders, and in three years we can engage to alter altogether
the prospect for forest revenue in Madras.16
In 1881, the Gol deputed Dr Brandis to prepare forest
legislation for the Madras Presidency. He visited Madras districts,
and was instrumental in
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framing the Madras Act of 1882. He proposed three types of
forests for Madras
Presidency, namely, reserved forests, reserved lands and private
forests, and
argued that the forest conservation should not only focus on the
silvicultural
operations, but also concentrate on providing for fuel and
fodder to the
population. There was no place of village forests in his revised
scheme:
Forestry is as yet still a new business in India, and in order
to secure success
at the beginning, it is necessary to deal with the problems of
forest protection in its easiest form. We must at the outset only
undertake the protection of
compact areas of suitable size with convenient boundaries; it
will be possible to embark upon a bolder policy and to settle
village forests in those tracts
which are better suited for cultivation of them for the growth
of timber.17 The Select Committee endorsed, the recommendation of
Dr Brandis on
Forest legislation. The Committee was not only for the creation
of reserved forests as state property but endorsed the provision
for reserved lands:
.. .in all districts there is a considerable extent of land
which is not wanted
for cultivation and which contain forest growth or is suitable
for
conversion into woodlands. We think that such lands should set
apart for
forest purposes...18
The opposition of the Board of Revenue and revenue officials was
no longer there, thanks to Brandis's interference. Both revenue
imperatives and
agricultural adjustment were behind the promulgation of the
Madras Forest Act
of 1882. The multiple voices pronounced during the debate were
actually the voices of conflicting departments. The Revenue
Department used the demand of
communal rights only as rhetoric to oppose the expansion of the
Forest
Department in the Madras Presidency. The Act empowered the
Madras
Government to undertake demarcation, reservation and settlement
of forests as
state property. It safeguarded the interests of the dominant
sections of
zamindars and inamdars by exempting their lands from
reservation, and even
created the forest courts for allowing people to appeal against
the Forest
Settlement officers. Thus the ideas of Brandis and Baden-Powell
had much in
common: both advocated for the monopolistic control of waste and
forest lands
by the state, barring the chosen exceptions. In contrast with
Madras, Bengal
- for that matter, Jalpaiguri - witnessed the
introduction of forest conservancy fairly early. Concerted
efforts were made by the Forest Department to demarcate forest
lands, reserving the tracts with
greatest commercial potential during the period 1864-1878. As
early as 1877, seven forests of Jalpaiguri Division were declared
as reserved19. Brandis visited
northern forests of Bengal both in the plains and the hills
several times in 1879.
He gave special attention to scientific forestry with reference
to three aspects: fire
protection and roads, cultural operations and timber operations.
For him, sheer
ignorance of protective fires was the root cause of the failure
of fire protection20.
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
He was one of the early advocates of teak plantation and
regeneration of the
taungya system practised by the indigenous people by sowing and
tending of forest tree species in conjunction with agricultural
crop. However, his pleadings for the taungya cultivation were
ignored at that time, to be taken up by the forest authorities much
later after 1900 as its significance for the induction of village
labour in fire protection and felling operations was increasingly
felt. But even
then the measure was half-hearted, and the taungya cultivators
had to face many
problems: the plantations were insufficient, the crops and
saplings were always at the risk of depredations of wild animals,
and the lands were low-lying. For the Rabha tribals in the forest,
however, there was no guarantee of "the land, the
house, and other constructions... (as they) belong to the Forest
Department of the state government. The forest authority only
permits them to enjoy these
temporarily in exchange of their labour rendered to this
department on year to
year contract"21. Thus, generally speaking, community forest
rights in Jalpaiguri were perceived to be privileges at the
discretion of the local bureaucrats including and excluding
Brandis, and such grants when made were often partial, half hearted
and guided by the urgency of the situation from the forest
administration's point of view.
Ill It has been widely acknowledged that the chequered history
of forest policies in
post-colonial India - its shifting emphasis, changed directions
and continuing
experimentation - is interesting and important as it centres on
certain cardinal
issues of cotemporary social change22. These issues are
generally grouped in the
ecological, technological and participatory concerns of the
localities and communities but they also contain within their
respective folds subtie issues of
poverty and equity, institutional and technological
interventions and grass roots democracy and bureaucratic
perceptions. In order to have clearer, more focussed view of the
process of change in this area, this section concentrates on the
brief history of 'village forestry' in post-colonial South Asia,
with special reference to Tamilnadu and West Bengal. The argument
is not only that there was a complex interplay of these issues but
that they also overlapped and at the same time were interdependent.
A historical understanding of the subject with reference to
development in the last fifty years is therefore in order.
From the middle of the nineteenth century, 'scientific forestry'
developed in India under the colonial auspices, which could lead to
the artificial demarcation of'reserved', 'protected' and 'village'
or 'community' forests as they were named in various parts of
India23. However, these discourses on scientific forestry could
neither stop the progressive commercialisation of forestry of
various forms nor the marginalization of its resident communities.
Indeed, the administrative infrastructure that was developed during
the colonial rule proved grossly
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inadequate in the post-independence era, both from institutional
and ideological perspective24. There was a renewed emphasis on
social and economic
development in an altogether different plane in the context of a
rapidly growing
population. There was a concern for deforestation and
development, as
exemplified from the official emphasis on 'Vana Mahotsva' and
'Grow More
Food' in wastelands in the early 1950s. As early as 1948, the
Government of India
(hereafter GOI) urged for tree planting as a national festival
or Vana Mahotsava in different states in the month of July and the
Assistant Secretary, Ministry of
Agriculture, GOI wrote to the Secretary, Development Department,
Madras on
23 July 1948: I am directed to forward herewith the copy of
appeal issued by the
Honourable Minister for Food and Agriculture... for plantation
of quick
growing trees in villages on the 15 August 1948, the first
anniversary of
Independence Day. As the plantation of quick-growing trees will
result in
making available to the cultivators a suitable fuel in place of
cow-dung now
burnt for fuel and thus help to release the latter for its
utilisation as manure
for increasing agricultural production, it is requested that the
provincial and state governments may give wide publicity to the
above appeal and
render all such assistance as may be necessary to the villagers
in these areas
for observing tree planting programme on the 15 August
1948.25
Two years later, the Madras Government argued that if the
wanton
destructions of the vegetable cover of the soil was to be
avoided, "it (wa)s
necessary to arouse consciousness among the masses regarding the
value of trees
and instil in them a zeal for planting more trees and protecting
them and an
adoration for these gifts of Nature which enrich the
earth".26
However, the Vana Mahotsava was not successful, but continued as
a ritual
for about 10 years. The important fact was that it failed not
only 'ecologically or
'technologically' but people's participation was 'indifferent'.
In the 1960s and
1970s, Farm forestry of various types was introduced in
different states of India
for the partial greening of the countryside. Here the farmers
mainly carried out
block planting of their wastelands but over-dependence on
eucalyptus was
ecologically degrading and the lack of dissemination of market
intelligence in
terms of prices and products was economically discouraging. The
group farm
forestry and the joint industrial forestry also met the similar
fate. In the latter
case, many private companies went into liquidation, as the joint
project, based
on again eucalyptus and bamboo, was not commercially successful.
During the
1970s and 1980s, forest departments of various states were
pre-occupied with
large, plantation-oriented social forestry projects, backed by
Central
Government, foreign donor agencies and various NGOs. For
example, Bihar
State Government, backed by the funding of Swedish International
Development
Authority (SIDA), encouraged the programme for the establishment
of
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
nurseries and fast-growing tree plantation in the 1980s, keeping
however the
indigenous community separate and isolated from forest
management initiative27. These limitations of social forestry
project became apparent over
time, encouraging some planners to devise alternative methods of
management. Joint Forest Management (JFM), devised as Forest
Protection Committees
(FPCs) as early as in the 1970s in certain parts of West Bengal,
only became
widely known in the 1980s28. "In 1988 and 1989, Orissa and West
Bengal passed state resolutions recognizing the validity of
community forest protection. In June 1990, the Government of India
passed guidelines notifying the exclusive rights to
forest products be extended to those villages effectively
protecting public forest lands. By 1994, sixteen states passed
similar orders."29
Thus the history of village forestry in India, from Vana
Mahotsava through farm forestry and social forestry down to the
joint forest management, makes an interesting reading of social
changes in well over 50 years. It is interesting not
only because of the ecological and technological aspects of
change, but also because of participatory and by that matter 'good
governance> aspects of it. Since our case studies are taken from
Tamilnadu and West Bengal, it is important to
begin with a general description of forest management after
independence in these two states respectively.
There were various working plans to stop forest felling even
during the colonial period. After the Second World Wai:,
development schemes were initiated in most of the states in India
in addition to regular working plan prescriptions. In the
post-independence period, these arrangements were
thought to be on a meagre scale compared to the needs of the
situation. There were large-scale fellings in zamindari and other
private forests and even landowners began felling their trees under
the inducement of high prices obtainable for wood. Thus
considerable areas of forests of former princely states, of former
zamindaris and even of private ownership came to stand in
urgent need of special measure of large-scale rehabilitation.
The extension of cultivation encouraged by Government-sponsored
Grow More Food
campaigns also resulted in much clearing of forest areas.
Inevitably, the pressure of a rapidly increasing population, the
improvement demand of the forest for wood and the growing imbalance
of the land under permanent vegetation (forests) and land under
cultivation highlighted the crucial issue of forest
management in ecologic and economic terms in both the states of
Tamilnadu and West Bengal.
In Tamilnadu, development work other than normally prescribed in
the
Department's working plans began with the First Five Year Plan.
The panchayat forests and some zamindari forests were taken over.
Certain soil conservation
experiments were made in the Nilgiris. Casuarinas, dry fuel
spices, soft woods, watde and blue gums were planted. Measures of
forest conservancy and related
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prescriptions prohibiting goats in forests, limiting grazing
incidence to the
capacity of fodder resources, regulating supplies of small
timber, fuel and other
produce to the villagers etc., were introduced. Documents
suggest that the Government was anxious to remove in some cases
serious grievances caused by forest conservancy, as a sort of
liaison between forest and people but its limitation was obvious.
Moreover, expenditure on forestry and forest administration was
confined to a small part of the revenue derived from the forests29.
Indeed, the success of the Department was mainly measured in terms
of its annual surplus only. The result was that forests especially
in dry and naturally poor localities in Tamilnadu suffered
progressively for want of special works of
'improvement' meaningful to the people. A way out was sought by
the schemes under the Second Five Year Plan.
Forestry schemes such as commercial and industrial plantation,
rehabilitation of degraded forests, extension of forestry by way of
tree planting along roads, canal banks, rail roads, river margins,
preservation of wild life and better
housing and other amenities of staff, labour and forest tribes
were made in
certain measure. However, forest departments were mainly
concerned with
afforestation of eroded and denuded hills and forest working
plans were mainly
providing for the formation of timber population and even that
on a limited
scale necessary for ensuring regeneration. During the Third Five
Year Plan, work was expanded systematically to areas
outside the regular forests, by way of extension forestry,
involving extensive
planting of trees, in grove as well as in wastelands. An
important objective was
the establishment of farm and community forestry that began to
be explored
during the 1960s and early 1970s. The most significant among the
early initiatives
in this venture was found in Tamilnadu31. Farm forestry scheme
were extended to tree planting and forestry activities to areas
outside departmental forests. The
foremost plan of the project was to create local fuel resources
and thus free the
agricultural population from dependence on village forests for
small
requirements.
Farm forestry subsequently developed into social forestry that
meant the
management and protection of forests and afforestation of barren
lands with
the avowed objective of environmental, social and rural
development. Its aim
was to create goods and services for the consumption, primarily
of rural poor. Here the forest department was expected to play the
role of educationist and
catalyst by providing the needful technical and other services.
In Tamilnadu, farm land below a tank and/or watered by a system of
canals are known as
ayacuty whereas the village common land for grazing is known as
poratnboke lands. The main components of social forestry in
Tamilnadu were plantations on tank foreshores and poratnboke lands.
Here the central concept that evolved
over time was to create forest-based resources in rural areas
through the full
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
improvement of local people in their capacity as individuals as
well as members of the village community.
The experiences of West Bengal in forest management in the early
years after
independence were similar to those of Tamilnadu. One outstanding
feature was the taking over possession of the most of private
forests of the state by the Forest
Department consequent on the implementation of the West Bengal
Estate
Requisition Act, 1953 (Act I of 1954) and also the transfer of
forest areas of Manbhum and Purnea from Bihar to West Bengal, with
effect from 1 November 1956. Here also a great drive was made to
Vana Mahotsava and wild life
preservation activities during 1955-196032. The gross area under
forest was 13.3
percent of the total geographical area of the state. In 1960,
the total area of forest of all classes in West Bengal stood at
4,535 sq. miles of which the reserved forests,
protected forests and other forests comprised 2691 sq. miles,
1573 sq. miles and 271 sq. miles respectively. The tempo of
development work in forest was reflected in the increased supply of
timber to the Indian Railways and to various
government departments and private wood-based industries like
plywood, match wood, packing case etc.
One result of this policy of use of forest was the progressive
degradation of it. In 1981, West Bengal had the highest population
density of any state in India and lowest per capita forest area
(0.02 hectare per person). Rural need for fuel wood and non-wood
forest products resulted in uncontrolled exploitation that
threatened the very existence of the remaining forests of the
state33. Conflicts and
mistrust between foresters and rural communities increased.
However, a novel solution developed as a result of the unique
activities of a silviculturist (an Indian Forest Service Officer)
in 1972 in eleven villages surrounding Arabari, thirty km. To the
north of Midnapore, followed by the development of the first Forest
Protection Committee (FPC).34 Here the villagers agreed to protect
the natural sal forest from fuel woodcutting in return of 25 per
cent of all revenue generated from the sale of firewood and timber.
The idea was reshaped in mid-eighties to cover the degraded forest
areas of Bengal in participatory management, which is known as
Joint Forest Management (JFM)35. In JFM, political support has been
enlisted in an institutionalised form by often tying it up with the
Panchayats. It has been estimated in 1997 that there were 3112 FPCs
under JFM in West Bengal, holding over an area of 521,118 hectares
with 374,322 beneficiary families.36 Thus in West Bengal, foresters
were made accountable to community groups, micro
plans were introduced, and a new analytic and administrative
framework for
supporting those plans were also created increasingly since the
middle of the 1980s.
In West Bengal, a number of field research findings highlight
certain crucial
aspects of JFM. Indian Institute of Bio-social Research and
Development (IBRAD) and the Department of Forest, Government of
West Bengal in their
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study of sal regeneration in east Midnapore show that there has
been remarkable
regeneration in the forestlands in the area after the formation
of FPCs under
JFM programme.37 It is important to note that increase of
vegetation cover has enhanced Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP)
production, which is
important for the sustenance for the people as well as the
village economy. P.
Bhattacharya, S.B.Roy and R.K.Bhadra suggest that very few
families within the FPCs have started inter-cropping on the
protected forestlands in Baikanthapur Division in North Bengal.
"The community as well as the Forest Department is not very clear
about the related factors like suitable soil conditions, supply of
seed in proper time, manure, insecticide, proper spacing method,
suitability of the crops for the area and season, aftercare and
protection from wild animals etc. Few families have got better
returns and some of them have even faced losses."38 K.C.Malhotra
and others made a study on the role of NTFP in the
village economy of southwest Bengal. A total of 216 households
belonging to
tribal and caste population from 12 FPCs in Jamboni range of
Midnapore district were studied. The local communities used the
forest products for various
purposes. This use of NTFP from the forest was mainly
concentrated on 73
plants including trees, shrubs, climbers, fungi, grass and two
animal species. The
"maximum utilisation of NTFP was found to be used as food,
followed by fuel, medicine etc. Although most of the species were
commonly used by tribals and
the caste population, some of the species like mahua flower,
bakhar root and the
karkut (ants) were consumed exclusively by the tribals."39 As
regards the food
items, kendu fruits were mostly raised, followed by mushroom,
tubers and leafy
vegetables. However, there was a genuine problem of marketing
infrastructure
for the disposal of the product, as exemplified by a case study
of mushroom40.
The role of women in utilisation of natural resources has been
highlighted
by a study of Mitali Chatterjee.41 It is argued that the
Government Order in 1989 on FPCs in West Bengal did not recognise
the role of women in forest protection, a mistake that was
rectified by a G.O. dated November 1991. As primary and
more frequent users of forest resources, women played an
important role in the
management and decision-making and were formally recognised as
voting members of local management groups. But there was a paradox
in women's
involvement in forest resources, which could not be resolved
without their
further engagement. As traditional users, they could readily
identify offenders, but by an extension of the argument sometimes
they could become the offenders
themselves. Chatterjee writes, This is significant in light of
the fact sometimes critical situations develop wherein male members
of the forest protection committee are unable to
take any action against the female offender for fear of
consequences. Here
an example deserves to be added. Dukhu Tudu, an old tribal man
of Dahi
village under the Khajra forest beat of Midnapore district of
West Bengal,
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once came upon a few women who were involved in indiscriminate
cutting of trees in nearby forest. Dukhu tried to prevent them from
damaging the forest but women refused to listen to him. He tried to
stop them by snatching away all their axes, but in turn, it was he
who was blamed for
misconduct. Those women complained to their husbands against
Dukhu
Tudu, accusing him physical attack and molestation. The men from
the
village of these women offenders then came in a group seeking
revenge with the result that Dukhu Tudu suffered serious head
injuries. This is no isolated case; there have been many such
incidents and consequendy men have not dared to catch women
offenders. Even some of the staff members of the forest department
are scared of preventing women from such unlawful acts. But if
women themselves are involved and given the
responsibility of forest management, they can work very
effectively, and the problem of forest protection and economic
status of women can be tackled simultaneously.42
The combination of male and female participation in certain
types of work is also noticeable. Madhumati Dutta and Manasi
Adhikari's study of sal leaf
plate making in Sabalmara, West Midnapore shows that it is a
household
industry, largely done by women folk, although male members of
the family also
participate. However, the main problem faced by the producers is
that they receive a very low price for the product and the return
to labour is the lowest in the industry.43
Local institutions also do count in effective management of
forest resources. But what was their exact role and what did the
people expect from them in West
Bengal in the 1990s? S.K.Maity and K.Bhattacharya have enquired
the institutional role of the panchayat in JFM programme into some
villages of
Khargpur and Jhargram Social Forestry Ranges in Midnapore44. It
has been found that about 58.8 percent of the respondents observed
that the panchayats played no role in farm forestry programme,
while 24 per cent admitted that they encouraged farmers through
meetings and group discussion to adopt the
programme and another 22 percent perceived that panchayat
distributed
seedlings, fertilizers and insecticide supplied by the forest
department. However, a more- active involvement of the panchayats
in JFM was expected by a
predominant number of respondents (81.6 percent). The study of
Mridul Manna and a team of researchers from Regional Research and
Study Centre (RRSC), Midnapore shows that JFM was encouraging in a
number of villages in the vicinity of forests in the district of
Bankura, Midnapore West and Purulia not
only because of the 'greening experience' but also of their
'participatory experience' in this programme45.
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IV This paper is not concerned with the detailed study of
post-colonial forest
policies of India, along with the concomitant issues. It is
concerned more with the colonial legacy in forest policies, their
apparent signs of continuity and
discontinuity in cotemporary India. Indeed, the chronology of
the first phase (1950-1980) of forest policies in post-colonial
India indicated significant elements of continuity, barring the
solitary instance of Arabari experiment in
West Bengal. Except declaring that Indian forests would be
henceforward guided by "paramount national need", the National
Forest Policy of 1952 was largely a
continuation of the Forest Policy of 189446. The control and
organisation of
private forests by government had already stated in the 1940s
and the First Five Year Plan documents "about 40 million acres of
zamindari forests have recently vested in state governments and
many of these, having been over-felled in recent
years require re-afforestation".47 The Second Five Year Plan
document indicates the actual extent (over 20 million acres) of
forest land under private ownership and management that "was
brought under state control and the administrative set up was
strengthened to deal with additional responsibility".48 The
government policies towards forest industries and minor forest
products
changed to the extent of long term leases of bamboo forests were
given to the
Paper Mills during the First Plan period to avoid direct capital
outlay of the
state49 and long term programme was undertaken during the Third
Five Year
Plan period (1961-66) for planting quick-growing species,
including eucalyptus.50
Scientific Forestry and people's participation in forests
continue to remain as two important aspects of post-colonial forest
policies in India. K.
Sivaramkrishana has shown that in the wake of the Private
Forests Act of 1948
that the erstwhile private forests of western Midnapore not only
participated in
a nationwide effort to consolidate central control over forest
resources but also
served as instruments for altering the species composition of
dry deciduous
forests of south-west Bengal with the introduction of eucalyptus
and akashmani
plantation for quick production of industrial raw materials that
made them so
attractive.51
As regards the second phase (1980s- 1990s) of forest policies in
post-colonial India, there is no doubt that very significant
changes have taken place associated
with the country-wide introduction of JFM. Most importantly,
participatory
perspectives highlight cardinal aspects of social and political
changes in
contemporary India. Some of its new features definitely go
beyond the colonial
legacy, In an apparent sense, it can even be treated as a
remarkable discontinuity in the colonial legacy of forest policies
in India. But even here, there are some
discordant notes. Akhileswar Pathak has shown that private
forests after its
liquidation in the 1950s came back in a big way in the 1980s and
1990s, in the
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
wake of the recommendation of the National Commission of
Agriculture, 197652. In the early 1990s, a whole book was published
by Samaj Parivartan
Samudaya, Dharwad in collaboration with Centre for Tribal
Conscientization, Pune, containing articles that spoke against the
National Forest Policy 1988 and
privatization of forest lands by commercial and industrial
interests.53 The three issues of the post-colonial village
forestry
- ecological,
technological and participatory - should be separately
underscored here. The
ecological imperatives of the village forestry in its various
forms stem from the
experience of diversified resource use of land and forest
products under highly variable climatic conditions. There was a
time-tested requirement of sub
marginal or fragile lands under low intensity uses like natural
vegetation as
against annual cropping. Consider the case of Interface Forestry
or that of Agro forestry in Dry Land or the Community Development
Wasteland Programme in Tamilnadu: in each case marginal lands,
wastelands or lands in degraded forests were involved for
'improvement' for the 'good' of the community However, a
distinction has to be made between plantations of commercial
timber/wood for use of government, contractors or people on the one
hand and the more diversified use of forest products for food and
non-food purposes. For example, the enthusiasm 'to plant eucalyptus
declined after 1986' as they failed to generate profitable returns
and proved to be less sustainable.54
The technological focus was addressed to break a vicious circle
involving degradation-neglect-further degradation of the broadly
defined CPRs. It is to be seen that productivity was not the only
question but there were other related issues. Persistent gaps
between the perspectives of the technologists and resource users
provided an issue to be constandy handled by the resource managers.
Other difficulties arose from frequent high priorities to
commercial considerations by the technologists ignoring the CPR
perspective. The emphasis on NTFP was one such perspective that was
duly incorporated in JFM programme in West Bengal.
The participatory question was very important as it highlighted
the
grassroots level democratisation of resource management system
and
participatory development process. The question, however, had
its bearing on the ecological and technological aspects of change
in forest management in
contemporary South Asia. For example, much useful ecological
knowledge and the idea of appropriate technology came from
indigenous communities engaged in forest management55.
Participatory perspectives also reduced the cost of
policing and subsidizing the resources necessary for other forms
of forest
management. But there must be incentives56. Though local
responsibilities very often rest with the poor in the management of
local resources, participatory development can only grow with
institutional assistance, within a favourable
political space57. However, most importandy, the participatory
perspectives
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highlight two cardinal aspects of social changes in contemporary
India. First, as an offshoot of grassroots democratisation involved
in the process, other issues like gender or equity became more and
more prominent. Secondly, it also
envisaged a significant change in the attitude of forester
involved in the formation of participatory forest management.
The second point requires further illustration. For instance,
only very
recently it has been appreciated that generally "both dependence
and influence of forest guards on villagers as well as the reverse
situation has a critical influence on the implementation of any
forest policy.
"58 Indeed, much of the explanation of the gap between policy
and implementation in forest management in
contemporary India may be found in the hitherto unexplored
interactions, conflicts and negotiations that occurred between the
ground-level implementer and forest society at large.
Naturally, the expectation from a forester phenomenally rose
during this
period. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Training Manual of
Joint Forest
Management prepared by S.B.Roy and Mitali Chatterjee on behalf
of Indian
Institute of Bio-social Research and Development (IBRAD), New
Delhi retain a
full chapter each on their 'Social Skills' and on their
'Motivation'59. These changes are unusual and they are meaningful
only with the reference to broader process of social change in
post-colonial South Asia.
Two pertinent concepts as emanating from people's stake-holding
in forest
management in the late twentieth century should be placed under
critical
appreciation at the end. They are the concepts of community and
participation,
concepts which appear in various forms in the entire history of
forest policies in
India. Arun Agarwal in particular has investigated the concept
of community in
relation to conservation and has focussed on its two aspects:
(a) community-as shared understandings and (b) community-as-social
organisation.60
"Community-as-shared-understandings is what accounts for the
appeal of the
notion, but policy changes can accomplish little to directly
further this aspect of
community. Indeed, most concrete policy proposals to involve
communities in
conservation generally address its social organisation."61 On
the other hand, Nandini Sundar and Roger Jeffery wish to view the
terms 'community' and
'participation' as significant grounds of contestation62.
Several questions are
naturally raised. How has the history of Indian forests been
conceptualised? What kinds of'community' are presupposed and what
gets elided or distorted in
the formulation? Why is 'participation' such a central value and
how is it
constructed so that 'participation' can be managed? How useful
is the concept of
'sustainability' in forest management? While the possible answer
for these
questions are to be sought mainly from the post-colonial history
of Indian
forests for understandable reasons, the colonial legacy of
forest policies may not
always be an altogether irrelevant theme.
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
V It is time for winding up. Two brief conclusions can be drawn
from this study of colonial legacy of forest policies in India.
First, forest policies, whether for colonial or post-colonial era,
are to be studied in the larger context of social
history of environment. It will not only help us to look beyond
the looking glass of the Forest Ranger, but also situate the forest
dwellers and the related stakeholders in their social settings.
Secondly, forest policies are to be studied in a comparative
framework, both in terms of time and space. In other words, a
comparative study in environmental history may be a valid
framework for
analysis of forest policies as well. It may not be mere wonder
that while Madras was the last to "shed" its claim over community
forest in colonial era in the
1880s, Bengal was to "stake" its claim for community
participation for the first time in the post-colonial era, in the
1970s. Such comparisons may be at once
intellectually productive and suggestive.
Arun Bandopadhyay is the Nurul Hasan Professor of History,
University of Calcutta, Kolkata.
y This paper was read at the Indo-Japanese Conference on South
Asian Economy and
Environment organised by Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced
Study, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Tokyo and Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi on 5-6 September 2009.
Notes
1 Marc Poffenberger and Betsy McGean (eds), Village Voices,
Forest Choices: Joint Forest Management in India (New Delhi, 1996),
pp.96-97.
2 Mark Poffenberger and Chhatrpati Singh, "Communities and
State: Re
establishing the Balance in Indian Forest Policy" in Marc
Poffenberger and Betsy McGean (eds), Village Voices, Forest
Choices: Joint Forest Management in India
(New Delhi, 1996), p.58. This is also largely the view of Gadgil
and Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India (New
Delhi, 1992).
3 Ramachandra Guha, "Dietrich Brandis and Indian Forestry: A
Vision Revisited and Reaffirmed" in Poffenberger and McGean (eds),
op. cit., p.86.
4 B.Ribbentrop, Forestry in British India (Calcutta, 1900;
reprint, New Delhi, 1989), p.66.
5 The classic discussion of the desiccationist discourse for the
colonial period is available in Richard Grove, Green Imperialism,
colonial expansion, tropical island Edens and the origins of
Environmentalism 1600-1800 (Delhi 1995).
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6 See K. Sivaramakrishnan, Modern Forests: Stateaking and
Environmental Change in Colonial Eastern India (New Delhi,
1999).
7 "(T)hough the Oriental Governments, from which the British
Government inherited its forest property, never recognized a
prescriptive right, it had to be admitted that, under the system
originally in vogue, and which had remained entirely unchecked for
sometime after the British occupation, rights of user had in some
instances been acquired by the legal process of prescription, in
consequence of the substitution, or at least intermixture, of
Western laws and ideas, in cases
where it had been exercised neither by force nor secretly, but
fully, openly and unchecked for 62 years." B.Ribbentrop, op.cit.,
p. 97.
8 V.M.Ravi Kumar, Evolution of Forest policies in Colonial
Madras Presidency (Andhra), 1870-1947: A Study in Ideas and Legal
Discourses (Unpublished Ph,D thesis, University Hyderabad, 2006),
p. 134.
9 Guha and Gadgil, This Fissured Land, op. cit.
10 Guha in Poffenberger and McGean (eds), op. cit.
11 Ravi Kumar, op.cit., p. 153
12 B.H.Baden-Powell and J.S.Gamble (eds) Report of the
Proceedings of the Forest
Conference held in Allahabad, 1873-74 (Calcutta, 1874), p.5.
13 Dietrich Brandis and A.Smythies (eds), Proceedings of the
Forest Conference held in Simla (Calcutta,1875), p.35
14 D.Brandis, Memorandum of forest legislation proposed for
British India other than the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras
(Simla, 1875), p. 13.
15 Minute by the Governor of Madras, 9 February 1878, quoted in
D .Brandis, Memorandum on the Demarcation of the Public Forests in
the Madras Presidency
(Simla, 1878), p.40.
16 Cited in Akhileswar Pathak, Law, Strategies, Ideologies:
Legislating forests in Colonial India (New Delhi, 2002)
17 D.Brandis, Suggestions Regarding Forest Administration in the
Madras Presidency (Madras, 1883), p. 7.
18 Ibid.?p.281.
19 See Sahara Ahmed, Desecrated Homelands: Village, Forest and
Social Protest in the
Jalpaiguri District, 1869-1947 (Unpublished M.Phil thesis,
University of Calcutta 1999), p.50.
20 D. Brandis, Suggestions regarding the Management of the
Forests in the J jalpaiguri and Darjeeling Districts, Bengall880
(Calcutta, 1880), p.6.
21 M.K.Raha, The Rabhas of West Bengal (Calcutta, 1967),
p.30.
22 See Aun Bandopadhyay, "Three Issues from a CPR Management:
Village Forestry in Post-colonial South Asia" in B.B.Chaudhuri and
Arun Bandopadhyay (eds), Tribes, Forest and Social Formation in
Indian History (New Delhi, 2004), pp.209 224. The present section
is largely based on the study.
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23 See Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land:
An Ecological History of India (Delhi, 1992), pp.113-145 and
Ecology and Equity: the use and abuse of nature in contemporary
India (New Delhi, 1995), pp.148-175.
24 See Subhabrata Palit, "Indian Forest Departments in
Transition" in Mark
Poffenberger and Betsey McGean (ed.), Village Voices, Forest
Choices: Joint Forest Management in India (Delhi, 1998),
pp.210-229.
25 See Development Department, Madras, G.O.4123, dt.6.8.1948,
Tamilnadu
Archives (hereafter TNA).
26 See Food and Agriculture Department G.O.Ms No 1108, dt.
7.6.1950. TNA.
27 See Mark Poffenberger, Betsy McGean, Arvind
Khare,"Communities Sustaining India's Forests in the Twenty-first
Century" in Poffenberger and McGean (ed),
op.cit., p.32.
28 See Mark Poffenberger, "The Resurgence of Community Forest
Management in
the Jungle Mahals of West Bengal" in David Arnold and
Ramachandra Guha, Nature, Culture, Imperialism: Essays on the
Environmental History of South Asia
(Delhi, 1995), pp.350-354.
29 See Poffenberger, McGean, Khare in Poffenberger and McGean,
op. cit., pp.26 27. These guidelines were transformed into
legislation, which was given wide publicity and possible extension
in meaning in the 1990s. As Justice P.N.Bhagwati (former Chief
Justice of India) wrote in April 1996, "I find that, unfortunately,
laws for the protection of the forests are highly theoretical and
unjust.. .These laws are conceived in the offices of the
bureaucrats and the chambers of the concerned minister, regardless
of the situation prevailing at the ground level and totally
ignoring the lifestyle of the forest denizens. The answer lies in
including the people residing in the forest regions and eking their
daily living from forest produce, taking them into confidence and
giving them an effective voice in the policy decisions affecting
forest management." See Justice Bhagwati's Foreword to the
study sponsored by Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra,
Dehra Dun,
Community Forest Management in Protected Areas - Van Gujjars,
Proposal for the
Rajaji Area (New Delhi, 1996), p.i. 30 See D.Janaki, History of
Forest Administration in Tamilnadu, 1935-1967
(unpublished Ph.D thesis, Department of Indian History,
University of Madras, 1990), p. 144.
31 See G.Foley and G.Barnard, Farm and Forestry (London, 1984),
pp. 14-15.
32 See Forest Department, Government of West Bengal, Review of
the Forest Administration in West Bengal from April 1, 1955 to
March 31, 1960 (Alipore, 1964).
33 See Mark Poffenberger, "Joint Management for Forest Lands:
Experiences from South Asia. A Ford Foundation Program Statement"
(mimeo, New Delhi, January 1990), p.9.
34 Ibid., p. 10. See also Mark Poffenberger,"The Resurgence..."
in Arnold and Guha, op. cit, pp.351-352.
35 "In the early 1980s, recognizing the success of Arabari and a
few other villages
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Social Scientist
where management agreements with forest communities were being
made, some
senior forest officers began to encourage field staff to pursue
similar negotiations in wider areas throughout the south-western
part of the state." See Poffenberger in
Arnold and Guha, op.cit., p.353.
36 See S. Palit, "Joint Forest Management in West Bengal" in
Annual Report 1996
97 and Proceedings of Annual Workshop, Regional Centre, National
Afforestation and Eco-Development Board (Ministry of Environment
and Forests, Government
of India, 1997), p.67. Hereafter, the volume is referred to as
Annual Report 1996 97 and Proceedings.
37 See IBRAD and Department of Forest, Government of West
Bengal, "Study of the Vegetation Dynamics in Regenerating Sal
Forest of Moupal Beat, East Midnapore Forest Division, District
Midnapore, West Bengal" in S.B. Roy and Mitali Chatterjee, Joint
Forest Management, A Training Manual (New Delhi, 1994),
pp.145-146.
38 See P. Bhattacharya, S.B Roy and R.K.Bhadra, "Scope of
Intercropping Practices
on Protected Forest Lands of North Bengal -
Ecological and Economic
Perspective" in Ibid., p. 148.
39 See K.C.Malhotra, Debal Deb, M. Dutta, T.S. Vasulu, G. Yadav
and M. Adhikari, "Role of Non-Timber Forest Produce in Village
Economy" in Ibid., p. 150.
40 ".. .in the marketing arena, there is a need for marketing
assistance programmes, which would help in giving information
regarding local and domestic markets and new opportunities, export
assistance network, and trade fairs/exhibition." See
Vanita Suneja, S.B.Roy, and J.K. Das, "Marketing of Mushroom" in
S.B.Roy and
Mitali Chatterjee, op. cit., p. 153.
41 See Mitali Chatterjee, "Women in Joint Forest Management A
case study from
West Bengal" in Mitali Chatterjee and S.B.Roy (ed.) Reflections
from Training on Gender Issues (New Delhi, 1994), pp.47-68.
42 Ibid.,p.57.
43 See Madhumati Dutta and Manasi Adhikari, "Sal Leaf Plate
Making in West
Bengal: A Case Study of the Cottage Industry in Sabalmara, West
Midnapore" in
Roy and Chatterjee, Joint Forest Management, op.cit., p.
149.
44 See S.K.Maity and K.Bhattachrya, "Farm Forestry" in Annual
Report 1996-97 and
Proceedings, op.cit., pp.71-72.
45 See Mridul Manna, "Some Experiences of Afforestation
involving People in Bihar and West Bengal" in Ibid., pp.75-76: "A
time has come when RRSC workers need not go to the village to
motivate villagers. Rather the villagers come to RRSC workers to
motivate them so that they could undertake new ventures according
to
villagers' need and spread to areas where there is lack of
afforestation."
46 Buddhadev Chaudhuri, Forest and Forest Development in India
(New Delhi, 1989), p. 144
47 Planning Commission, Government of India, The First Five Year
Plan, 1950-55
(New Delhi, 1953), p.129.
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The Colonial Legacy of Forest Policies in India
48 Planning Commission, Government of India, the Second Five
Year Plan 1956-61
(New Delhi, n.d.), p. 301.
49 The First Five Year Plan, op.cit., p. 129-30
50 Planning Commission, Government of India, The Third Five Year
Plan 1961-66 (New Delhi, n.d.), p.365.
51 K. Sivaramakrishnan, "Landlords, Regional Development and
National Forestry
Projects: Midnapore, 1930s-1960s" in Roger Jeffery and Nandini
Sundar (eds), A New Moral Economy for Indian Forests? Discources of
Community and Participation (New Delhi, 1999), pp.88-89.
52 Akhileswar Pathak, "Law, Private Forestry and Markets" in
N.C.Saxena and Vishwa Ballabh (eds), Farm Forestry in South Asia
(New Delhi, n.d.), pp.50-68.
53 S.R.Hirenath, Sadanand Kanwalli and Sharad Kulkarni (eds),
All About Draft Forest Bill and Forest Lands: Towards Policies and
Practices as if People Mattered, (with a) Forward by Chandi Prasd
Bhatt (Dharwad and Pune, 1994).
54 See N.C.Saxena, 'Farm Forestry in different Agro-Ecological
Regions of India',
p.4, cited in N.H.Ravindranath, Madhav Gadgil and Jeff Campbell,
"Ecological Stabilization and Community Needs: Managing India's
Forest by Objective" in Poffenberger and McGean(ed), op. cit.,
p.294.
55 Consider, for example, the arguments of Dev Nathan and Govind
Kelkar for the establishment of forest communities' property rights
over forests in "Case for Local Forest Management, Environmental
Services, Internalisation of Costs and Markets" in Economic and
Political Weekly (hereafter EPW), Vol.XXXVI No 30 (July 28-August
3, 2001). For them, "this local knowledge of the forest communities
is indispensable to developing higher productivity-based multiple
use forest systems, based on ecosystem rather than single product
management. Community management, or local interest management,
rather than
management by forest departments, can best harness this
knowledge for effective forest management." Ibid.,
pp.2839-2840.
56 This seems to be a common lesson from the environmental
projects elsewhere. See Michael Stahl, "Environmental
Rehabilitation in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands: Constraints to
People's Participation" in Dharam Ghai and Jessica M.Vivian (ed.)
Grassroots Environmental Action, People's Participation in
Sustainable Development (London and New York, 1995). Stahl
concludes," The incentives must be directed to households and
individuals, as well as to common resources such as village
woodlots. Villagers do not plant and tend woodlots productively
unless there are rules and procedures for how households can
benefit from the collective enterprise by securing fuelwood and
construction material for their individual needs." Ibid.,
p.298.
57 See Philippe Egger and Jean Majeres, "Local Resource
Management and development: Strategic Dimensions of People's
Participation" in Ghai and Vivian(ed), op. cit., pp.304-324.
58 See Sudha Vasan, "Ethnography of the Forest Guard,
Contrasting Discourses, Conflicting Roles and Policy
Implementation" in EPW, Vol. XXXVII No. 40 (October 5-11, 2002),
p.4132.
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Social Scientist
59 See Roy and Chatterjee, op. cit., Chapters 5 and 6. Consider,
for example, the two
observations made in the Manual. "Even if few persons agree to
form FPC it is very difficult to unite. Villagers have different
group affiliations, political ethos, cultural norm and are
influenced by several other groups. This causes conflict and
may be resolved through social skills which have been developed
based on several researches on social science. Once the foresters
learn to manage man, they can
manage the forest flora and fauna more effectively" (Ibid.,
Chapter 5, Social Skills', p.59). See also Chapter 6, 'Motivation',
p.90: "To be more precise, people do not destroy forest for want of
fuel only. That means people will not stop destroying the forest
when one provides them with fuel... .One has to examine the
whole experiment in a historical perspective where foresters as
a government
agency have certain norms in their mind that by providing some
material or economic gain to the community the problem could be
solved. The people called have their own perception of government
departments and
government dole. We may call it the cultural values in this
regard. In order to judge the impact of such an event one has to
examine the conditions and attitude of the
people before and after the programme."
60 Arun Agarwal, "Community-in-Conservation: Tracing the
Outlines of an
Enchanting Concept" in Jeffery and Sundar (eds), op,cit,
pp.92-107.
61 Ibid.,p.l05.
62 "Introduction" in Ibid., pp. 16-54.
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Article Contentsp. 53p. 54p. 55p. 56p. 57p. 58p. 59p. 60p. 61p.
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Issue Table of ContentsSocial Scientist, Vol. 38, No. 1/2 (Jan.
- Feb., 2010), pp. 1-92Front MatterEditorial [pp. 1-2]Maidan: The
Open Space in History [pp. 3-22]Dominance and Resistance: A Study
of Narasimha Reddy's Revolt in Andhra (1846-47) [pp.
23-36]Technical Content and Colonial Context: Situating Technical
Knowledge in Nineteenth Century Bengal [pp. 37-52]The Colonial
Legacy of Forest Policies in India [pp. 53-76]Centenary of
Martyrdom of Four Militant Nationalists of Bengal [pp. 77-87]Book
ReviewReview: untitled [pp. 88-91]
Back Matter