Abstract
The book is composed of seven chapters with glossary of the local terms, 11 pages of bibliographic content and 11 pages of index. The introductory chapter defined the nature and character of European countries generally and Great Britain particularly. There were two broad themes of debate in the context of the idea of conservation of forest and wildlife. The first debate was based on the pre-colonial equilibrium between nature and society. The second debate illustrated the character of colonial Forest policies (commercialisation or conservation). For better understanding, the author divided the India’s Environmental History into six phases, namely Pre-colonial phase 1790s (equilibrium between society and natural resources), Pre-forest Act 1790s–1870s (systematic exploitation of nature), Post-forest Act 1870s–1940s (implementation of Indian Forest Act 1878 and a period of debate between conservation and commercialisation), Post-independence phase-until the 1980s (development during Fifth Five year plan), Post-forest Conservation Act—until 2006 (more infrastructure more extraction of Forest) and Vote bank politics era 2006 onwards (implementation of TSP, restoration of Forest Rights Act 2006).
The second chapter ‘Exploitation of Forests, 1793–1882’ was divided into two categories. The first part of the chapter discusses the tribal’s traditional method of agriculture (shifting cultivation and settled cultivation) and production for domestic consumption (pre-1793). The author argued that the tribals were the conservator of resources due to their non-commercialised nature of forest resources. The second part had defined the commercialised agenda of the Colonial government from 1792 to 1882. The author here provided the statistical analysis of extraction of timber and sandalwood, plantation of coffee and tea, British-owned Iron making and sugar boiling industry and introduction of railways in Madras Presidency which fulfilled their commercialised nature to larger extent.
The third chapter ‘Conservation or Commercialisation, 1882–1947’ defined the intention of colonial government with the implementation of Madras Forest Act 1882 which came into force in 1883. The chapter begins with a question of whether the British government was in favour of Conservation or Commercialisation? The Forest Act restricted the lifestyles of tribals, namely collecting grazing fees, restrictions on cattle, introduction of forest hill village system, extracting timber and sandalwood, exploiting bamboo, etc., which encouraged the non-tribals to become the habitat of hilly areas. Though the idea of forest conservation was accepted but this is due to the fulfilment of future demands of the Colonial government. In fact, the demand had forced the colonial officials to commercialise the forest resources.
The fourth chapter ‘Forests and Tribals, 1950–2000’ critically analyse the character of government policies from the First Five year plan to the Eighth Five year plan in Tribal areas of Tamil Nadu. In order to protect the forest resources, the Government of Tamil Nadu had enacted the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forest Act 1949, Tamil Nadu Hill Areas Act 1955, Forest Conservation Act 1980, Forest Conservation Rules 1981, National Forest Policy 1988, Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, Tamil Nadu Timber Transit Rules 1968, Tamil Nadu Sandalwood Transit Rules 1967, Tamil Nadu Sandalwood Possession Rules 1970 and so on. Although the government had encouraged the afforestation through different programmes such as Forest Festival, the Social Forestry Project (1982), the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Development Project (1991–1992) and Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project (1997–1998), he argued that the conservation of forest was not the prime agenda of State.
The fifth chapter ‘Environment and Subaltern Struggle, 1990–2000’ discussed the tribes of Vachathi village in Tamil Nadu in terms of their population, their method of self-sustaining forest-oriented life, their method of cultivation and the collection of forest productions, and their health facilities. In spite of that, it also defined the inhuman activities of State agencies (revenue department, forest department and police department). After Independence, the government had introduced several legislations—the protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules 1985—but the state-sponsored crimes were continued in different forms and the concrete example was Vachathi Tribals.
The sixth chapter ‘Impact of Forest Right Act, 2006’ accentuated the loopholes of government policies and the impact of the Forest Rights Act, 2006. The statistics illustrated the very high illiteracy, the declined proportion of tribal workforce, the downward slide of tribal economy with the encroachment by the non-tribals and Forest department and the lack of structural transformation among tribals. The Forest Rights Act 2006 was opposed by the Wildlife Protection groups (particularly Tiger) whereas it was also supported by tribals, forest-dwelling activist groups and CSOs. The act provided some facilities—to collect minor forest procedures and the right to convert forest villages into revenue villages—but it failed in terms of the sustainable and all-round development of tribals.
The concluding chapter was based on the comparative analysis of both colonial and post-colonial periods in terms of environmental policies. Here, the author accentuated the hidden agenda of government in regards to extracting the forest resources for the purpose of commercialisation. The result was the same in the case of the post-colonial period. The lack of vision of the government had created the gap between tribals and tribal policies which destroyed their economy. However, in the later part of the twentieth century, the government implemented several policies for the tribal development but the various agencies of government were responsible for their socio-economic degradation. Even, the Act of 2006 was also unable to protect the tribal land as the land was encroached on by non-tribals.
Hence, the book illustrated the real conditions of tribals in regard to various policies of both colonial and post-colonial governments. The book was based on a critical analysis of sources so that the facts and arguments are more appropriate. In this context, the book would be an eye-opener for the administrators and an invaluable asset for the scholar of social sciences, environmentalists, students and faculty.