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NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science History Chapter wise
Page No. 96
Questions
Q1. Discuss how the changes in forest management in the colonial period affected the following groups of people :
(i) Shifting cultivators
(ii) Nomadic and pastoralist communities
(iii) Firms trading in timber/forest produce
(iv) Plantation owners
(v) Kings/British officials engaged in hunting.
Answer: (i) Shifting cultivators practice slash and burn agriculture. In this practice, parts of the forest are cut and burnt in a rotation. European foresters regarded this practice as harmful for the forests. They felt that such land could not be used for growing trees for railway timber and was dangerous while being burnt as it could start a forest fire. This type of cultivation also made difficult for the government to calculate taxes. Thus, Colonial government banned shifting cultivation. As a result, many communities were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions.
(ii) Nomadic and pastoralist communities like the Korava, Karacha and Yerukula from the Madras Presidency lost their livelihoods. They were designated as ‘criminal tribes’ by the British authorities and were forced to work in factories, mines and plantations under government supervision.
(iii) During the colonial period, the new forest laws brought forests under the hold of the British government as resources. Companies dealing with timber production and other forest produce could take lease of the forest from the government. The market was booming for forest products especially timber due to its use in infrastructure, furniture making, ship making, etc. Thus, firms engaged in the timber trade and forest products made good profits.
(iv) In Assam, both men and women from forest communities like Santhals and Oraons from Jharkhand and Gonds from Chhattisgarh were recruited to work on tea plantations. Their wages were low and the condition of work was not good. They could not return easily to their home villages, from where they were recruited.
(v) This group was a happy lot because the British government viewed large animals as symbols of a wild, savage and primitive society. Consequently, hunting tigers, wolves and the like was encouraged. Around 80,000 tigers, 150,000 leopards and 200,000 wolves were hunted down for reward from 1875-to 1925.
Q2. What are the similarities between colonial management of the forests in Bastar and in Java?
Answer: Forest management of Bastar in India was under the control of the British, while in Java, it was under Dutch management
(i) Just like the British, the Dutch required timber to make sleepers for railway tracks.
(ii) The British and Dutch colonial authorities enacted their own version of the forest laws that gave them total control over the forests and depriving the customary rights of the forest dwellers.
(iii) Both the Dutch and the British put a ban on shifting cultivation on the grounds that they were dangerous to the existence of forests
(iv) The villagers of Bastar were allowed to stay in the forests on the condition that they provide free labour to the forest department. While in Java, the Dutch exempted those villages from paying taxes when they provided free labour to the forest department
Q3. Between 1880 and 1920, forest cover in the Indian subcontinent declined by 9.7 million hectares, from 108.6 million hectares to 98.9 million hectares. Discuss the role of the following factors in this decline :
(i) Railways
(ii) Shipbuilding
(iii) Agricultural expansion
(iv) Commercial farming
(v) Tea/Coffee plantations
(vi) Adivasis and other peasant users
Answer: (i) Railways played a vital role in the decline of the forest cover in India. For laying railway tracks forest land had to be cleared. Apart from clearing area for tracks, railway locomotives required timber for fuel and sleepers. For all these needs forests had to be cut down. The British government gave contracts to individuals to supply the required quantity of timber. These individuals cut down trees indiscriminately.
(ii) Before the coming of the industrial revolution, the ships of the early 19th century were made of wood. Britain maintained its colonial possessions through the Royal Navy with its huge number of naval fleets. But in order to maintain them vast tracts of oak forests in England were cut down.
This caused a logistical problem for the Royal Navy as a regular supply of timber was required to build new ships and maintain the old ones. It was easily remedied by cutting down forests of its colonies. Huge acres of forests disappeared as a result with some areas seeing almost complete deforestation.
(iii) The growing population of Europe needed a large supply of food grains. The British government used India as a supplier of grains. To meet the demand, new forest areas were cleared to make way for agricultural land.
(iv) The British encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat and cotton. The demand for these crops increased in the 19th century Europe, where food grains were needed for growing population and raw material for industries.
(v) As mentioned in the previous note, when they were forced to leave their forest homes, the forests became victims to trade avarice. Industry did not worship the earth or its resources like the adivasis had done.
Q4. Why are forests affected by wars?
Answer:(i) Demand of wood increases to meet the needs of war and more deforestation takes place.
(ii) During war, large areas of forests come under fire which led to clearing of forests.
(iii) At the time of war, Governments themselves put the large catches of wood and cutting machines on fire so that these resources must not go in the hands of enemy. It is known as the policy of ‘Scatcherd Earth’. Dutch rulers followed the same policy in Indonesia. They wanted to stop their forest resources to go into the hands of Japan.
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