Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Historical Geography of Forestry and Forest Culture in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, 1757-2015

Abstract

Re-examining a range of archival data and information regarding colonial forestry in the state of West Bengal, India, it has been found that the colonial period was the clear-cut turning point of the forest landscape in terms of environmental changes of the state. In West Bengal, the British colonial rulers were in a highly dominating position; and they had implemented one single model of forest management throughout the Indian subcontinent including the Bengal Presidency. The primary objective of the present study is to understand the changing nature of colonial forest landscape through plantation (Sal, Tea, and Cinchona) activities and the establishment of forest villages through Taungya process in the sub-Himalayan West Bengal from 1757 to 1947. In particular, this study aims to examine as to how the colonial plantation activities changed the forest landscape of this particular region. It also examines civil society movement based on forest resource rights and problems in the implementation of the Forest Right Act (2006) in the sub-Himalayan West Bengal till 2015, since independence. The colonial forest management authority was more interested in the plantation and cultivation of trees with high timber values compared to the natural forest. For this purpose, the saplings of Teak, Mahogany, Sisso were supplied to different parts of Bengal province to increase the timber productions. In 1886, for the first time in the Indian forest history, an area of about 15,5,399.29 sq.km was demarcated as Reserved Forest which included the whole western Dooars region located on the right bank of the river Teesta in the northern part of West Bengal. It was the starting point of 'scientific' forest management in the then Bengal Presidency or present West Bengal. The Taungya system of scientific forest management was first initiated in the Bengal Presidency in colonial India after colonial Burma (Myanmar). The system has changed the traditional cultivation practice within the forest land. Due to the Taungya system, 168 forest villages were established in the Himalayan foothills of Bengal. And since India’s independence in 1947, West Bengal has witnessed a number of civil society movements linked to the welfare of poor forest villagers demanding the forest resources rights, for example, the Jangal Mahal movement. The Forest Right Act (2007) has also created conflicts in different parts of the study area. In a nutshell, rapid exploitation of forest resources along with trading monopoly of forest management by the state Forest Department has done historical injustice to the people of sub-Himalayan West Bengal.

Keywords

Forestry, Colonial Forestry, Taungya Process, Commercial Plantation, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India

PDF

References

Banerjee, A., and Ghosh, S. (2010). The Creation of West Bengal’s Forest Underclass: An Historical Institutional Analysis of Forest Rights Deprivations. School of Environment & Development, University of Manchester.
Banerjee, A., and Madhurima, C. (2013). Forest degradation and livelihood of local communities in India: a human rights approach. Journal of Horticulture and Forestry, 5(8), 122–129.
Blanford, H. R. (1922). Note on a Short Tour in Northern Bengal. Burma Forest Bulletin, 5.
Bhuyan, B., & Kar, B. (2018). The Pachyderm Dread: A Case Study of Human-Elephant Conflict in the Fringe Areas of Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam. Space and Culture, India, 6(3), 142-155. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v6i3.391
Census of India (2011). West Bengal Census Handbook, Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal, Kolkata.
Champion, H. G., and Seth, S. K. (1964). A Revised Survey of Forest Type of India. Delhi: Manager Publication.
Choudhury, G. (2015). Land Tenure and Forest Conservation in the Dooars of the Eastern Himalaya. Review of Agrarian Studies Vol., 5(1).
Das, B. K. (2012). Losing Biodiversity, Impoverishing Forest Villagers : Analysing forest policies in the context of Flood Disaster in a National Park of Sub Himalayan Bengal, India (No. 35) (Vol. 91). Kolkata.
Das, D. (2014). An Ecological Journey to Pandam through Mulgaon Areas of Darjeeling Himalaya with Special Reference to Monitoring of Vegetation in West Bengal, India, 4(4), 53–79.
Das, D. (2017). Park, People and Biodiversity Conservation in Kaziranga National Park, India. Space and Culture, India, 5(1), 36-48. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v5i1.244
Das, N. (2011). Women’s dependence on forest and participation in forestry: A case study of joint forest management programme in West Bengal. Journal of Forest Economics, 17(1), 67–89.
Dasgupta, R. (1992). Economy, Society and Politics in Bengal: Jalpaiguri 1869-1947 (1st ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Directorate of Forest. (2012). West Bengal State Forest Report.
Edberg, S. (2015). Commercial Eucalyptus Plantations with Taungya system in Lao PDR: Analysis of Tree Root Biomass. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Forest Directorate. (1964). West Bengal Forest. Calcutta.
Gadgill, M., and Guha, R. (2002). This Fissured land: A Ecological History of India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Ghosal, S. (2011). Pre -Colonial and Colonial Forest Culture. Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography, 5(1), 107–116.
Ghosh, B. C. (1970). The Development of Tea Industry In The District Of Jalpaiguri 1869-1968 (1st ed.). Kolkata: W. Newman & Co., Kolkata.
Guha, R. (1994). Forestry Debate and Draft Forest Act: Who wins, who loses? Economic and Political Weekly, 2192–2196.
Guha, R. (2001). The Prehistory of Community Forestry in India. Environmental History, 6(2), 213–238.
Hart, G. . (1915). A tour of inspection of Buxa and Jalpaiguri forest division. In Proceedings of the Government of Bengal, Revenue Department(Forest). Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press.
Jha, S. (2010). The struggle for democratizing forests: The forest rights movement in North Bengal, India. Social Movement Studies, 9(4), 469–474.
Jha, S. (2012). Radical Politics and Environmentalism against Taungya in Dooars. Economic and Political Weekly, XLVII(1), 112–118.
Kar, A. (2004). Kiratbhumi (Jalpaiguri), KIRAT BHUMI Publication, Bengali Newspapers, RNI No. 53248/88, West Bengal.
Karlsson, B. G. (1999). Eco-development in Practice : Buxa Tiger Reserve and Forest People. Economic & Political Weekly, 34(30), 2087–2089.
Karlsson, B. G. (2000). Contested Belonging: An Indigenous People Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan Bengal (1st ed.). New Delhi: Routledge.
Kumar, V. M. R. (1900). Green Colonialism and Forest Policies in South India, Republished by the Environment & Society Portal, 1800-1900, 101–126.
Lahiri, A. (2014). Pioneering work of Taunguya Based agro-forestry in West Bengal. In Towering Presence: 150 years of Forestry West Bengal. West Bengal Directorate of Forest.
Litvinoff, M., and Griffiths, T. (2014). Securing Forest Securing Rights: Report of the International Workshop on Deforestation and the Rights of Forest Peoples.
Murial, C. E. (1915). Investigation of Insect-pest Sal tree in Buxa Duars. In Proceedings of the Government of Bengal, Revenue Department(Forest). Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press.
Nagendra, H., Paul, S., Pareeth, S., & Dutt, S. (2009). Landscapes of protection: Forest change and fragmentation in Northern West Bengal, India. Environmental Management, 44(5), 853–864.
Panja, U., & Mistri, B. (2018). Human-Elephant Conflict in Sonamukhi C.D. Block of Bankura District, West Bengal. Space and Culture, India, 5(3), 106-128. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v5i3.295
Prokop, P., & Sarkar, S. (2012). Natural and human impact on land use change of the Sikkimese-Bhutanese Himalayan piedmont, India. Quaestiones Geographicae, 31(3), 63–75.
Rangarajan, M. (1996). Environmental Histories of South Asia: A Review Essay. Environment and History, 2(2), 129–143.
Ravi Kumar, V. M. (2012). Colonialism and Green Science: History of Colonial Scientific Forestry in South India, 1820-1920. Indian Journal of History of Science, 2(47), 241–259.
Roy, S. B. (1992). Forest Protection Committees in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly, 27(29), 1528–1530.
Saha, D., and Sundriyal, R. C. (2012). Utilization of non-timber forest products in humid tropics: Implications for management and livelihood. Forest Policy and Economics, 14(1), 28–40.
Saikia, A. (2011). Forests and Ecological History of Assam, 1826-2000. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Shebbeare, E. O. (1928). Fire Protection and Fire Control in India, prepared for British Empire Forestry Conference.
Singh, S.B. (2015). Women as Milieu Managers in Integrated Watershed Management: Perspectives from the Hilly Areas of Uttarakhand. Space and Culture, India, 2(4), 71-79. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v2i4.130
Singh, S. (2014). Women, Environment and Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Khul Gad Micro Watershed of Kumoun Himalaya. Space and Culture, India, 1(3), 53-64. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v1i3.45
Sivaramakrishnan, A. K. (2016). Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History Colonialism and Forestry in India : Imagining the Past in Present Politics Colonialism and Forestry in India : Imagining the Past in Present Politics, 37(1), 3–40.
Sivaramakrishnan, K. (1999). Modern Forests: Statemaking and Environmental Change in Colonial Eastern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2000). State Sciences and Development Histories: Encoding Local Forestry Knowledge in Bengal. Development and Change, 31, 61–89.
Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2009). Forests and the environmental history of modern India. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(2), 299–324.
West Bengal Forest Directorate. (2014). Towering Presence: 150 years of Forestry in West Bengal. Kolkata.
Win, S., and Kumazaki, M. (1994). The History of Taungya Plantation Forestry and Its Rise and Fall in the Tharrawaddy Forest Division of Myanmar (1869-199). Journal of Forest Planning.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.