Fencing the Forest: Conservation and Ecological Change in India's Central Provinces, 1860-1914The creation of the edifice of imperial forestry in the late nineteenth century had major consequences for the people, trees and wildlife of India's Central Provinces. The new regime of 'command and control' of forested hills and valleys marked an ecological watershed. Fencing the Forest draws on archival and printed sources to shed fresh light on the ecological dimensions of the colonial impact on South Asia. The extensive woodlands of the Central Provinces of India became vital to imperial interests in the late nineteenth century, and this book argues that it was protection of these interests, rather than conservation per se, that was at the heart of imperial forestry in India. The changing responses of rural forest users to the new pressures unleashed by colonial forestry and the fortunes of the land they lived on are the key themes of this study. This book will be useful to historians of modern India, the environment and wildlife, and anyone interested in ecological issues. |
Contents
Early History and Background | 10 |
Shikar and the Raj | 138 |
Towards an Ecological History | 198 |
Copyright | |
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agrarian Agri agriculture areas Baigas Balaghat Balaghat District bewar Bilaspur Bilaspur District blackbuck Bombay Brandis British Calcutta cattle central India Central Provinces Chanda changes cheetah Chhatisgarh colonial Comm commercially Comps Conserv CPs Rev CPs to Sec deer Dept Files Destruction dhya District Dunbar Brander ecological extermination Foreign Dept Forest Act Forest Department Forest Officers forestry Forsyth Gonds government forests grazing Guha hills Hoshangabad hunters hunting Ibid impact imperial IOLR Jabalpur jungle killed Korkus labour Land Revenue Settlement malguzars Malwa Mandla Maratha Mughal Nagpur Narbada Nimar North West Provinces officials plough cultivation pressure private forests Procs protection railway Raipur regulations reserved forests rulers Sagar Seoni Sept shifting cultivation shikaris significant Southern Circle species sportsmen swidden cultivation tahsil teak tigers timber trees tion tracts tribals users villagers wild animals wood woodlands zamindari