Social Scientist

Forests and Forest Policy in India

Author(s): Gopa Joshi
Source: Social Scientist, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 43-52
Published by: Social Scientist
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3516869
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 GOPA JOSHI*

Forests and Forest Policy in India

ONE of the legacies of imperialism, uniformly inherited by a

of the Third World countries, is the wanton destruction of their
forests. The modern means of transport and communication
facilitated the expansion of empires in the colonial countries. The
consolidation of these empires, in turn, necessitated a further spre
of the transport and communication network in the colonies. This
increased the demand for forest-wood. The dense forests were ruth-
lessly felled to be used as sleepers for railway lines and paper-pulp
for manufacturing paper. The laying of railway lines facilitated
transport of other raw materials from the forests, such as lac, resin,
tan-stuff and dye-stuff, medicinal herbs, etc. In order to gain mono-
poly control over the forest wealth, the rights of the local inhabitants
had to be restricted. This was done in the guise of scientific manage-
ment of forests. The theory that there is a basic contradiction
between the local inhabitants and forests, and that the local economy
is based on unscientific exploitation of the forests, has been generated
to attain this object. It was pleaded that to conserve the forest wealth,
the locals' hold over their forests should be restricted to the minimum.
Forest departements were set up to guard the forests against the en-
croachment of the local people and to facilitate the 'scientific' exploi-
tation of forests by the imperialists.
The net result of this 'scientific management' of forests is that
today there is an acute shortage of firewood. It is estimated that more
than 1.5 billion people use wood for cooking food and for maintaning
essential levels of warmth at home. But fuel-wood gathering now
requires 360 man-days annually per household in Gambia and 250-300
man-days in Central Tanzania. In South Korea, 15 per cent of
household income is spent on fuel. In parts of Western Africa,
people have been reduced to one cooked meal a day. In the uplands
of Nepal, only vegetables which can be eaten raw are grown.
The pressure on forests is so high that in the developing coun-
tries the existing forest area is being reduced annually at the rate of
5-10 million hectares (ha.) in Latin America, 12 million ha. in Africa,

*Teaches political science at Rajhans College, Delhi, and is associated with

PIDT in forest development research.

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44 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

4 million ha. in Asial. Contrary to this, in the advanc

forests occupy a considerably larger proportion of their
area. It is reported that in Northern Europe, 48 per ce
geographical area is covered by forests; in Eastern Europe and
USSR it is 45 per cent. The average forest area for the whole of
Europe is 41.35 per cent. The forest area in Northern America is
33.3 per cent, in Central and South America it is 38.9 per cent. In
West Asia it is only 3.4 per cent. In 1961, the total forest area in
Asia was 19 per cent, Africa 25 per cent and in the Pacific area only
11 per cent of the total geographical area.2
Besides the paucity of fuel-wood, the fast disappearance of the
forests has resulted in the disturbance of the ecological system.
According to an UN estimate, some 10 per cent of the world's popula-
tion lives in the mountainous areas. But the ill-effects of deforestation
in terms of wind and soil erosion, silting, flooding and drought also
affect another 40 per cent of the population which lives in the adjacent
lowlands. In India, 50 per cent of the total land area is seriously
affected by water and wind erosion. The displacement of the fertile
top soil is estimated to be around 6,000 million tonnes a year. In
Pakistan, erosion affects 76 per cent of the total land area.3 The
deforestation has also resulted in serious landslides and in the drying
up of fresh water springs in the Himalayan region creating a shortage
of drinking water. Most of the streams have become seasonal.
Soil erosion causes the silting of rivers and water reservoirs.
The river beds of the Napalese Terai are rising at the rate 15 to 30 cm
a year.4 In India, the rate of erosion of the Sutlej is 150 acre feet pe
100 square miles. In the case of the Beas and the Jamuna it is
250 and 400 acre feet respectively per 100 square miles. In the case
of the Kosi, it has risen to 500 acre feet per 100 square miles. As
against this, in the U S A, in the Columbia river it is one, in the
Mississippi six, in the Tennessee 12, in the Colorado 36 and in the Rio
Grande 61 acre feet per 100 square miles of watered area. This heavy
rate of silt flowing into the Indian rivers has drastically reduced the life
span of river dams. The silting rate of the dams constructed during
the Third and Fourth Plan periods has been 213 per cent higher than
the original estimate.5 The Mangla reservoir, for example, was built
to last for 100 years or more. But the sediment measurement after a
few years of operation revealed that after 50-75 years the reservoir
would become unusable.6 In terms of rupees, the annual loss caused
by the disturbance of the Himalayan eco-system in the Indian sub-
continent is about Rs. 1200 crores, through floods, crop damage and
sedimentation. Rs. 10,000 crores worth of land (about seven million
hectares) has already been lost. During the 1951-1969 period, the river
valley projects, extension of agriculture, townships, industries,
construction of roads, canals, power transmission lines, etc. have
claimed another 1,836,250 hectares of existing productive forest land. 7

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 FORESTS AND FOREST POLICY I N INDIA 45

In the light of the devastating impact of deforest

paper seeks to inquire into the causes of the rapid def
India, and to examine how and to what extent the social forestry
programme initiated by the government from 1974-75 seeks to undo
the ill-effects of deforestation.
Both the government and UN agencies, including the FAO,
agree that deforestation in the Third World is caused by popula-
tion explosion, especially so in India which is one of the most
populated countries in the world. The theory of the existing contra-
diction between the inhabitants of the forest regions-mostly tribals-
and the forests, propounded by the British imperialists, has been
accepted by both the agencies. According to the Draft Sixth Five
Year Plan, the purpose of extending the social forestry programme to
tribals would thus be to convert the tribal economy based on the
destructive use of trees, to a system in which tribals begin to take care
of the trees.8 This approach has been further magnified in papers
read and published by some of the top bureaucrats of the forest
department. The most glaring example of unanimity of opinion on
this issue is provided by the papers read by different forest depart-
ment officials in a series of seminars organised by the Hima-
laya Seva Sangh in Shillong, Dehra Dun and New Delhi during
1976-77.9
According to the FAO report:

There are now perhaps, 200 million people living in the tropical
forest areas and practising 'slash and burn farming' (shifting
agriculture) on perhaps 300 million hectares (ha.) of forest lands in
order to provide their daily food. In parts of South and Southeast
Asia this form of land use occupies some 30 per cent of the officially
designated forest area. The traditional systems of shifting agricul-
ture, which employed a lengthy fallow period under forests to
restore the fertility of soil, which were capable of supporting agri-
cultural crops for only a limited number of years, have largely
broken down. Growing population pressures, and migration in the
forest areas by landless people from elsewhere, have forced a
progressive shortening of the fallow period to the point where it
suffices neither to restore soil fertility nor recreate an usable forest
crop. 0

On the other hand, B K Roy Burman, in his paper read at the

aforementioned seminar in Shillong, while acknowledging that shifting
cultivation causes soil erosion, concluded on the basis of his empirical
studies that "commercial exploitation of forests and utilisation of
forest products for the supply of fuel-wood, housing material and
grazing, caused soil erosion to a much greater extent". Dilating on
shifting cultivation, he said that there were four or five techniques of

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46 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

shifting cultivation. The harmful effect of shifting cu

added, depended on types of flora which naturally grow an
hillslope which is left fallow.1l
Sundarlal Bahuguna contends that construction of mot
and faulty working plans of the forest department have
the causes of deforestation. To facilitate the construction of a motor
road on the mountain slopes, first a large number of trees are des
troyed. Secondly, the motor road makes the forest wealth accessible
to commercial exploitation. The rolling of logs destroys the top
soil of the hills. High-voltage power cables worsen the situation.
One glaring example of the construction of a motor road leading
to the destruction of forests, according to him, is the Jajal-Gaja road.
Bahuguna has taken the latest forest working plan 1976-77
to 1986-87 to show how in the working plan the emphasis is on
deforestation and not on afforestation. The working plan defines the
main objectives of the forest management as "to conserve, improve and
extend protected vegetal cover of forests and other perennial vegetation
over the track. ... Consistent with the above, to achieve progressively
the maximum possible sustained yield of timber and other forest pro-
duce and maximum possible economic returns". The annual prescribed
yield of 4,314 cm was tied to the raising of successful artificial
plantation of 36.4 ha per annum. But only 2 to 4 per cent of chir
plantations, about 11 per cent of cedar plantations during eight years,
survived. During 15 years of the plan period 1961-62 to 1974-75, in
the Uttarkashi forest division, there has been 20 per cent excess
felling in chir working circles. On the plantation side, during the
corresponding period, only 2,773,671 ha out of the target of
5,451,544 ha have been planted. Most of these plantations have
not been successful.
Besides the felling of trees, the method of deep laceration
adopted by contractors to extract more resin dries up the chir pine
trees. In the Chakrata division, in 1975-76, the number of trees which
dried up due to excess extraction of resin was so large that it was
found unneccessary to mark trees for felling. Finally, stressing that
the forest department is more interested in exploiting the forest for
commercial purposes rather than for conserving the eco-system, Bahu-
guna says that the expenditure incurred on conservation activities goes
on dwindling in relative terms. He gives two examples to prove his
point. In the Bhagirathi division, during the 1871-72 to 1875-76 period,
the expenditure on conservation activities was 70 per cent of total
forest revenue, while in 1975-76, it was only 37 per cent. In Tons
division the expenditure on conservation work in 1975-76 was only
9 per cent.12
Even K M Tiwari's report on the effects of deforestation on the
Bhabar belt of the U P hill districts confirms the impression that
massive deforestation and land reclamation in the Terai was like

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 FORESTS AND FOREST POLICY IN INDIA 47

commiting an 'ecocide'. The scale of such deforestati

cealed by faulty data. As Kayastha points out the forest data in
India are entirely unreliable. In many cases the actual forest land
in India is much less than what has been shown in the land-use data.
There have been vast discrepancies between the data given in the
working plans and what is revealed by satellite photography o
Uttarkhand forests. In Uttarkashi district, for example, accordin
to the working plan, 83 per cent of the area was reported as forest
while the actual forest area is just 15 per cent.13
Tn fact, the forest department is yet to shed its colonial atti
tudes. The imperialists brought forests under their control on th
plea of conserving the forest wealth. The basis of our forest polic
is a Memorandum of the Government of India issued on August 3,
1855. This Memorandum was based on the report submitted to the
Government of India by Dr McClelland in 1854 suggesting certain
restrictions on the unchecked exploitation of forests by the private
parties. This pronouncement has been termed as "an act of far-
sighted statesmanship and marked the first concrete step towards
scientific conservation of the forests".14 This policy was further
elaborated and its implementation further consolidated by the Resolu-
tion No. 22F of the Government of India, dated October 19, 1894.
The main objects of forest management, according to it, were to pro-
mote the general well-being of the country, to preserve climatic and
physical conditions of the country and to fulfil the needs of the
people.
To attain these objectives, it was suggested that permanent
cultivation should get priority over forestry. The satisfaction of the
needs of the local population at non-competitive rates should over-
ride all considerations of revenue. Only after these needs were ade-
quately satisfied was the revenue consideration to be emphasised.15
But in actual practice, the revenue from the forests has been the main
objective of the forest management policy; the above could explain
the dwindling forest wealth, in spite of the whole paraphernalia of
forest administration ostensibly meant to conserve forests. The
decimation of forests reached gigantic proportions during World War
II when Indian forests were mercilessly used for British defence
purposes. As one British forest administrator admitted, the
felling, particularly in the Terai forests, was much beyond the
'permissible limits' and that even such forest lots as were planned to
have been rested for 30 years or so were cut down.16
The locals did not accept passively the regulation of their rights
over the forests. They resisted the imperialist control over their
forests. But their movements were suppressed. However, the strength
of the movement was such that in 1908, after police firing on the
people resisting British control over their forests at Tilari in Uttar-
khand region, Sir John Hewett had to make a declaration at the

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48 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

Darbar held at Bareilly on November 2, 1908, that the "

has no desire to make money out of the forests in Kumaon
to spend for the benefit of the people of Kumaon."17
Today the movements waged by the people of Utt
U P to protect their forests bear testimony to their awa
the significance of forests in their lives and their will to e
rights over their forests. Today the resistance faced b
department from the tribals to planting fast-growing s
place of the original vegetation is an indication of the
content over the forest policy. They are convinced that
policy is neither scientific, nor in their interests but ser
interests of the rich capitalist class. The Chipko Moveme
enough evidence of the people's consciousness about the
of the forests. In fact, there is enough evidence to pro
destruction of forests could be considerably reduced if the
managed by the people and are for the people. As even th
working plan is constrained to admit, "wherever the Oak f
entrusted to the nearby villagers who were authorised to a
Chaukidars, the Oak trees have been well-protected, there h
specific damage and lopping has been done systematically
The National Forest Policy of free India was formulate
on the basis of six paramount needs of the country. The fir
was evolving a system of balanced and complementary l
second was checking the denudation of mountain regions
of space along the treeless banks of the great rivers lead
formation, and the invasion of sea sand on coastal tracts
was the establishment of tree lands, wherever possible.
was the need for ensuring progressively increasing supplies
small wood for agricultural implements and in particular
release cattle-dung for manure. The fifth was the need
supply of timber and other forest produce required fo
communication and industry. And finally there was the
realisation of maximum annual revenue in perpetuity co
the fulfilment of the other needs enumerated above.19
In practice, the last two needs have been the main concern of
the forest department. The maximum harm is done to the forests
by the contractual method of exploiting the forest wealth. In spite of
the Dhebar Committee's recommendation, the contract system has
not been abolished, which is hardly surprising given the strength o
the contractors' lobby. But unless the contract system is abolished,
the labour cooperatives, because of their weak economic power, cannot
be sustained. The substitution of the Forest Development Corporatio
for the contractors does not improve the situation, because, in order
to earn the maximum profit, the FDC uses exactly the same tactics as
are employed by the contractors, e.g., low wages, import of chea
Nepali labour, etc.

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 FORESTS AND FOREST POLICY IN INDIA 49

The dwindling forest area and the rising forest revenue also
underscore this point. In 1961, about 24 per cent of the Indian geo-
graphical area was reported to have been covered by forests. Now
only 22 per cent of the total geographical area is reported to be forested.
According to some sources, the effective forests are only 12 per cent of
our geographical area. The gross revenue earned by the forest
department in 1951-52 was Rs. 253,358,000. The total expenditure
incurred was Rs.103,111,000. In 1970-71, the gross revenue was
Rs.1,323,708,000 and total expenditure Rs. 729,339. Thus while the
forests are dwindling and the inhabitants are getting pauperised, the
forest department is earning enormous revenues and is in turn en-
abling industrialists to earn huge profit margins.20 On the forest regene-
ration side, in 1951-52, out of 259,137 sq. km. area sanctioned under
the working plan, 10,906 sq.km. were regenerated, incurring an
expenditure of Rs.4,560,000. In 1970-71, out of 292,648 sq.km. area
sanctioned for regeneration, only 13,648 sq.km. were regenerated and
afforested at the cost of Rs.45,191,000.21

Social Forestry
To diffuse the prevalent discontent in the hill regions and to
undo the ill-effects of deforestation in the current Five Year Plan
1978-83, stress is laid on the regeneration of forests. The main objec-
tive of forestry development is defined as "to meet the economic
mands for forest products, maintain and improve the quality of
environment as well as provide substantial employment, particularly
the poorer sections of the society". To attain these objectives, th
development programme would concentrate on the acceleration of
production forestry, expansion of social forestry, including farm
forestry, and linking forestry development with the economy of th
people in and around forest areas.22
In the plantation programme, the quick-growing species and
long-rotation crops are to be given priority on the plea of meeting the
increasing demand for fuel-wood, timber, pulp-wood and other indus-
trial raw materials, The forestry development programme has been
divided into two parts-production forestry and social forestry. The pur-
pose of production forestry is to meet the raw material requirements
of the forest-based industries. The main emphasis in the production
forestry programmeis on planting quick-growing hard wood species
and tropical pines. Production forestry is to be carried out mainly in
reserved forests.
"Social forestry will be undertaken by creating forest raw
material resources on degraded forest areas, waste lands, panchayat
lands, lands on the side of roads, canals and railway lines." Besides
increasing the area under forests, the objectives of the social forestry
programmes are to meet the needs for fuel-wood and small timber
in the rural areas, to increase fodder supply and to protect

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50 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

agricultural fields from wind.

Under the social forestry programme the fast-growing
are to be combined with such species as are suitable at the v
level as side-line occupations. Provision has been made to em
few neighbourhood families as labourers for the plantation. The
involvement of the Panchayats is sought by sharing with them 50
per cent of the profit realised from the plantation on Panchayat lands.
Grazing has to be restricted first by improving the animal husbandry
sector and secondly, by increasing the supply of fodder. To ensure
that the local people get employment, the services of existing volun-
tary organisations are to be utilised. Finally, the Five-Year Plan
envisages the linking of the forest economy with the economic deve-
lopment of the tribal population. It should give permanent support
to the tribal economy. The tribals may be allowed to collect
fuel on silvicultural principles and market it for a living. The same
approach can also be adopted for minor forest produce.23
Thus, the planners, by means of social forestry, have sought to
involve the locals in the forestry development programme. But the
social forestry programme is to be implemented on degraded forest
areas, waste land, panchayat lands, lands on the side of roads, canals,
railway lines. This implies that in the reserved and protected24 forest
area, production forestry is to be practised. According to the 1973-74
estimates, out of a total of 748,747 sq km of forest area, 353,310 sq
km are reserved forests and 242,544 sq km are protected forests.
Ownership-wise 681,500 sq km are owned by the forest department.
Type-wise 576,894 sq km are merchantable forests and 152,777 sq
km non-merchantable forests.25 Composition-wise, 38,506 sq km
are coniferous and 691,165 sq km non-coniferous forests.26 Thus,
a mere glance at the area-wise coverage confirms that production
forestry would get priority over social forestry. According to another
estimate, the state owns 94.30 per cent of total forest area; 3.35 per
cent is owned by corporate bodies and 2.35 per cent constitutes private
forests.27 If the social forestry programme is conducted only on
forests owned by corporate bodies and on private forests, it is difficult
to visualise how forest development under the programme, confined to
only 5.70 per cent of the total forest area, can meet the increasing
demand for fuel, fodder and material for side-line industries.
Large chunks of the forests are merchantable and non-coniferous,
but the non-coniferous forests are also more intensively exploited.
For example, in 1975-76, while the production of coniferous industrial
wood was 12 lakh cubic metres and of coniferous fuel wood was 3 lakh
cubic metres, the production of non-coniferous wood stood at 96 lakh
and 148 lakh cubic metres respectively.28 In the afforestation pro-
gramme, however, the stress is only on fast-growing species, which
can be used more as raw material for forest-based industries rather
than helping in developing the tribal economy.

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 FORESTS AND FOREST POLICY IN INDIA 51

Here also, the forest department has been influ

British forest policy. The programme of developing t
species is not only ruining the tribal economy but also d
eco-system and wild life. The Bastar forests in MP ar
the destruction caused by such plantations. The rate
existing sal forests are being uprooted by the Forest
Corporation, with the help of bulldozers, power-chain
winches and trucks, is such that it is estimated that wit
10-15 years the entire region would be devoid of for
which are being planted in the place of sal trees, do
improve the tribal economy. Rather, in the process
reduced to mere wage-earners, at the mercy of industri
In fact, both in production forestry and social f
emphasis is on fast-growing species for a number of
these species serve the purpose of providing raw ma
based industries. Secondly, the forest department earns more
revenue from them. For example, in 1975-76 the royalty received
from industrial wood was Rs 127 crores as against Rs 20 crores from
fuel-wood, including charcoal. The royalty received from bamboo w
Rs 7.62 crores, while from grazing and fodder, it was only Rs 4.40
crores. The royalty from minor forest produce in the same year was
Rs 103.94 crores.30
Both the area and money allocated for production forestry are
more than for social forestry. The Hill-Region Annual Plan for 1978-
for example, had proposed an area of 3000 ha for planting trees
of economic and industrial importance. In this field, actual
plantation has exceeded the target. The whole of the Terai belt i
to be planted with eucalyptus and paper Melbury. No reference i
made as to how this plantation programme would help the local
inhabitants. Regarding the civil and Soyam forests, the plan pres-
cribes that they should be taken over by the forest department for
scientific development, for increasing revenue and potential forest
wealth.31 How the local inhabitants would benefit from this scheme
has not been explained. On the other hand the social forestry progra
that is being experimented with in the 120 acre forest land of
Gopeshwar, with the active participation of the local people, has
shown remarkable results.32
In fact, any forestry programme to be successful should take
into account the needs and aspirations of the local people. Only whe
the local people are taken into confidence, their needs met and thei
active participation in the forest development ensured, can forestry
develop in India. But this necessarily requires an attack on the
interests of the capitalists who have been the major beneficiaries of
the current forest policy.
1 FAO Forestry Paper, "Forestry for Local Community Development", Rome,
1978, pp 5-7.

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52 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

2 Ghildyal, "The People and Forests", in Gupta et al (ed), Man and Forests,
New Delhi, Today Tomorrow Printers, 1979, p 61; and 100 Years of Indian
Forestry, 1861-1961, Dehra Dun, 1961, p 35.
3 FAO Paper, op cit, p 7.
4 Ibid, p 7.
5 S Bahuguna, "The Himalayas: Towards a Programme of Reconstruction",
in Gupta (ed), Man and Forests, op cit, p 143.
6 FAO Paper, op cit, p 7.
7 Bahl, "Afforestation: Where We have Gone Wrong", in Gupta (ed), Man
and Forests, op cit, pp 172-173.
8 Draft of the Five Year Plan, 1978- 83, p 150.
9 These papers are included in the book Man and Forests cited earlier.
10 FAO Forestry Paper, op cit, pp 6-7.
11 Roy Burrman, "Forestry in the Himalaya-For the People and By the People",
in Gupta (ed), Man and Forests, op cit, p 23.
12 S Bahuguna, op cit, pp 145-148.
13 Kayastha, "Forests Environment and Development", in Gupta (ed), Man and
Forests, op cit, pp 28-37.
14 100 Years of Indian Forestry, 1861-1961, Vol II, p 63.
15 Ibid, p 63.
16 Kayastha, op cit, p 35.
17 D P Joshi, "Evolution of Forest Conservancy and Panchayat Forest System
and their Contribution to Forest Development in U P", in Gupta (ed), Man
and Forests, op cit, p 90.
18 Uttarkashi Forest Division Working Plan, p227, para 11-1, quoted by
Bahuguna, op cit, p 147.
19 100 Years of Indian Forestry, 1861-1961, op cit, p 329.
20 The market value of the forest produce is much higher than the rate at which
the forest departments sell them to the forest-based industries, See, India
1979, New Delhi, Publication Division, Government of India, 1979, p 228.
21 Statistical Abstracts, India 1977, Government of India Publication, 1978,
pp 67-73.
22 Draft of Five Year Plan 1978-83, p 149.
23 Ibid, pp 149-150.
2A Reserve forests are permanently dedicated either to the production of
timber or other forest produce. In these forests, right of cultivation or
of grazing is seldom allowed. In protected forests, these rights are allowed
subject to mild restrictions. See, Statistical Abstracts, India 1977, op cit, p 66.
25 Merchantable forests are within the reach of economic management or
exploitation as sources of forest products; they may include immatur
forests or managed forests where felling is prohibited. Non-merchantable
forests are not exploited, oving to inaccessibility or the fact that the fore
products are unsalable and unprofitable. See, Ibid, p 66.
26 Coniferous forests are soft-wood forests and the non-coniferous forests are
broad-leafed forests. See, Ibid; p 66.
27 Sharma, Development of Forests and Forest-Based Industries, Dehra Dun,
1978, p8.
28 See, India 1979, op cit, p 228.
29 For details, see Gupta, "An Attack on Bastar's Ecosystem", Indian Express,
March 29, 1980.
30 India 1979, op cit, p 228.
31 Hill Region Development Plan, 1978-79, pp 135-143.
32 See, Bhatt's article in Himalaya: Man and the Nature.

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