History of Change

Historically, tribals living in the forest areas have derived the lifestyles from forests. Forests in fact have influenced their collective imaginations, and they belief in culture, thereby shaping their identity. Even today, we have evidence of the coexistence of tribals and forests (Poffenberger and McGean 1996). Indian tribal people on the forest is characterized by  rules of use and extraction, governed by religious constitutions and practices that ensured that forests were not degraded. With the arrival of colonial forestry, there has been unabated deforestation.
British in the 19th century viewed vast lands of Indian forests as the prosperity of the colonial exchequer, as these lands could be utilized as revenue-yielding property (Pathak 1994). Forests were rapidly razed to the ground both for revenue from timber supplies and for maximizing land revenue by putting the cleared tracks into cultivation (Guha 1994). The growing ship-building industries in England in 1800s and the expansion of the railway network in India in the 1850s further spurred the demand on timber, leading to rapid deforestation. The risks inherent in unregulated logging were noted by some officials, and they created the Forest Department.