Question

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:
1. Railways
2. Shipbuilding
3. Agricultural expansion
4. Commercial farming
5. Tea/Coffee plantations
6. Adivasis and other peasant users

Answer 1

Hint: During the time of the British guideline, trees were felled with no idea. Enormous quantities of trees, as an example, the sal, teak, and sandalwood were cut for development.
Trees couldn't be felled without earlier authorization and knowledge of the British authority. This progression was taken to ensure that they were the only clients of the trees of the forests.

Complete answer:
1. Railways: The 1860s marked the beginning of the expansion of the railway system. Around 1890, the length of the track laid down was 25,000km and by 1946, the distance of the tracks had expanded to over 765,000 km.
 - With the development of the railways, a countless number of trees were felled. In the 1850s, 35,000 trees were felled in the Madras Presidency for construction of the sleepers for the rails.

2. Shipbuilding: The British government required colossal boats for its Royal Navy. Boats are worked of solid, sturdy lumber. At the point when the oak woodlands in England started to vanish, the British assaulted the backwoods assets in India.
- Tremendous amounts of wood were traded to England from India, for transport building, accordingly draining forest woods in India.

3. Agricultural expansion: The populace was on the ascent and the interest in food expanded. Laborers broadened the limits of development by clearing woodlands. This gave them more land accessible for development.
- Also, there was extraordinary interest in money harvests, for example, tea, cotton, jute, sugar, and so forth, which were expected to take care of the businesses of England.

4. Commercial farming: The British legitimately energized the creation of business crops like jute, sugar, wheat, and cotton. The interest for these yields expanded in the nineteenth century in Europe, where food grains were expected to take care of the developing metropolitan populace and crude materials were needed for modern creation.
-Subsequently, huge plots of woodland were cleared to make land accessible for business cultivation.

5. Tea/coffee cultivation: The pioneer state imagined that woodland land was inefficient. It didn't yield rural produce nor income. Enormous zones of woods were thus cleared to clear a path for tea, espresso, and elastic manors to meet Europe's developing requirement for these products.
- The provincial government assumed control over the timberlands and gave immense zones to European growers at modest rates. The territories were encased and freed from woodlands and planted with tea or espresso.

6. Adivasis: The Adivasis and other laborer clients, assemble timberland items and eat their steers. Their occupation originated from forest produce. This doesn't decimate the backwoods aside from in some cases in moving horticulture.
- Adivasis and other worker networks view the woodlands as their own and even connect with guardians to keep a vigil over their backwoods.

Note:
In 1976 administration of the forests went under the concurrent list. 'Advancement without devastation' and 'timberlands for endurance' were the subjects of the following two five-year plans, targeting expanding wildlife and connecting woodland improvement with the ancestral economy.