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Abstract
This article analyses the institution of ‘scientific forestry’ in the northern borderlands (‘Frontier’) of British India c. 1850–1940. Using archival material from the India Office Records (IOR), it traces the extension of colonial forest policies from the plains to the inaccessible parts of the Indus River and its tributaries. The article demonstrates that ‘scientific forestry’ was an early conservation narrative claiming to preserve forest – but in reality had a long lasting and, often devastating impact on forest resources. While ‘scientific forestry’ was gradually implemented in the more distant parts of the ‘Frontier’ – an idiom for the northern borderlands of British India – they passed over the lateral valleys along the main Indus gorge where large expanses of forest remained hidden from the Imperial gaze. By virtue of their inaccessibility they emerged unscathed from a century of intense forest prospecting and exploitation. Thus only in those areas where ‘scientific forestry’ could not be implemented was pristine forest preserved.
Acknowledgements
This article was initiated under a PhD scholarship (1996–2000) funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The archival material was collected at the India Office Records (British Library, London) and the National Documentation Centre (Islamabad). I am grateful for suggestions from several colleagues and, especially, the detailed comments from two anonymous FDS-reviewers. The usual disclaimer applies.
Notes
1 Assam and Kerala (Tucker, Citation1988a); Bengal (Poffenberger, Citation1996; Sivaramakrishnan, Citation1997); Burma (Bryant, Citation1994a; Citation1994b; 1996); Gujarat (Hardiman, Citation1996); Uttar Pradesh (Tucker, Citation1988b; Guha, Citation1989); Western Himalayas (Tucker, Citation1982; Citation1987; Citation1993; Schickhoff, Citation1993; Citation1995; Citation2002).
2 Carl von Carlowitz's seminal work Sylvicultura oeconomica (1713) used the term ‘sustainability’ (‘nachhaltende Nutzung’) for the first time.
3 Richard Grove Citation(1993) has traced the first environmental policies to seventeenth century St Helena and Mauritius.
4 In addition to deodar the ‘softwood’ category included blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), spruce (Picea smithiana), silver fir (Abies pindrow) and chir pine (Pinus roxburghi).
5 In addition to deodar the ‘softwood’ category included blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), spruce (Picea smithiana), silver fir (Abies pindrow) and chir pine (Pinus roxburghi).
6 A fuller biography of Brandis' legacy is found in Guha Citation(1996).
7 H. Cleghorn, 1864, Report upon the Forests of the Punjab and the Western Himalaya, Rorkee: Publisher unknown, India Office Records (IOR) V/27/560/123. The archival sources in the rest of the article are from the IOR. All documents in copy with the author.
8 Similar losses where common on other Himalayan rivers but considered justified because ‘the military defence of British Raj demanded this expense and sacrifice’ (Tucker, Citation1993, p. 179).
9 Led by zealous forest officers this repressive policy engendered strong local protests that fluctuated with the government's demarcation efforts (cf. Stebbing, Citation1923, p. 535; Parnell, Citation1920, pp. 4–5; Tucker, Citation1982, p. 118).
10 Progress report on Forest Administration in the North-West Frontier Province for the year ending 31 March 1934, Peshawar 1935. (IOR V/24/1445).
11 Some timber was also imported from Eastern and Central Afghanistan (Fischer, Citation1970, pp. 81ff).
12 R. Parnell, 1928, Proposals for Forest Conservancy in the Trans-Indus Tract of the North West Frontier Province, Calcutta: Government of India (IOR, R2/1083/286-87), p. 8.
13 The forests of Dir were badly overcut too but the strong willed Nawab (ruler) of Dir plainly refused to let forest officers inspect his forests (Champion and Osmaston, Citation1962, p. 399).
14 Letter from the Hon'able Sir Norman Bolton, Chief Commissioner NWFP to the Government of India on ‘Proposed agreement between the Government of India and the Tribes of Swat Kohistan, Garwi [sic] Tract’, 27 April 1927.
15 Similar deals had been struck with princely states such as Chamba and Tehri (United Provinces, U.P.) during the 1860s (Tucker, Citation1982, p. 117).
16 The details of the forest exploitation in Kalam can be found in Sultan-i-Rome Citation(2005).
17 More details on the petty states' competing claims to Kalam are found in Sultan-i-Rome (Citation2005, pp. 77ff).
18 Enclosure: ‘Agreement between Kalam and Utrot [sic] jirgas and the Government’, Malakand, 5 March 1927'.
19 Letter to the Hon'able Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor General, NWFP, on ‘Proposed agreement between the Government of India and the tribes of Swat Kohistan (Garwi [sic] tract)’, Simla, 28 June 1927.
20 Letter from the Hon'able Chief Commissioner NWFP to the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India on ‘Proposed agreement between the Government of India and the tribes of Swat Kohistan (Garwi [sic] tract)’, 12 July 1927.
21 Letter from Foreign Secretary to the Government of India to the Hon'able Chief Commissioner NWFP on ‘Proposed agreement between the Government of India and the tribes of Swat Kohistan’, 10 November 1927.
22 Letter to the Deputy Commissioner, Hazara and the Hon'able Chief Commissioner, NWFP, 22 September 1927.
23 The accession document was accompanied by the thumb impressions of twenty-seven named men comprising six major valleys on the west (right) bank (Dubair, Pattan, Seo, Ranolia, Kandia, Jijal, Keyal) and two valleys on the east (left) bank (Jalkot and Kolai). Conspicuously absent from this list was Palas, a major Kohistani valley on the east (left) bank, see Knudsen Citation(2009).
24 Confidential letter from E. B. Howell (Resident in Kashmir) to the Foreign Secretary in Simla on ‘Extension of control in the Indus Kohistan’, Srinagar, 11 June 1928.
25 See Bolton's typescript letter (page 3), 27 April 1927.
26 Confidential letter from Sir Norman Bolton (Chief Commissioner, NWFP) to the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, on ‘Extension of control over the Indus Kohistani country’, 16 January 1928.
27 Letter from the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India to the Hon'able the Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor General NWFP, Simla, 15 June 1928.
28 For details on the accession of Kalam (‘Gawri tract’) to the Government of Pakistan in 1947, see Sultan-i-Rome (Citation2005, p. 98).
29 This included the ‘Chilas, Harban and Sazin (lying directly on the [river] Indus); and also Darel and Tangir (side valleys to the right [west] of the Indus’ (Stellrecht, Citation1998, p. 20).
30 Report on the independent territories of Darel, Tangir, Kandia, Harban, Sazin, Shatial, Sumar and Jalkot. Not dated, c. 1928, p. 3.
31 Sifat Bahadur, the Ruler of Punyal, attempted to gain control with Darel and Tangir but was restrained by the Political Agent in Gilgit.
32 Extract from the Resident's report on his tour in the Gilgit Agency in 1927. Not dated.
33 The Resident in Kashmir (E.B. Howell) remarked that; ‘we do not want a second Waziristan on the borders of Chilas and Hazara… [and] the introduction of modern rifles in any part of the Gilgit Agency would seriously endanger the whole administration’; extract from the Resident's report on his tour in the Gilgit Agency in 1927. Not dated.
34 The problem of armament predates the 1920s and was an ongoing process since the 1890s.
35 Very Confidential letter from G. Loch to Sir John Wood (Resident in Kashmir), Gilgit, 12 January 1926 (IOR/1083/28).
36 Very Confidential letter from the Political Agent in Gilgit to the First Assistant to the Resident in Kashmir on ‘Taking over the independent territory of Darel, Tangir, Harban, Shatial, Sazin and Jalkot’, 15 November 1926.
37 In 1925, at least six timber firms were involved with timber trade in Darel and Tangir. Royalties from the trade provided massive income to local right holders with only token subsidies accruing to the Government of India and the hereditary Kashmiri rulers (Kreutzmann, Citation1995, p. 222).
38 Letter from the Hon'ble S.M. Fraser, Resident in Kashmir, to the Hon'ble Lt.-Col. Sir Henry MacMahon, Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department, Simla, 6 April 1913.
39 Report on the independent territories of Darel, Tangir, Kandia, Harban, Sazin, Shatial, Sumar and Jalkot. Not dated, c. 1928.
40 Cf. ‘Report on the independent territories… c. 1928’.
41 Demi-Official letter from Lt.-Col. G.D. Ogilvie, Resident in Kashmir, with accompanying ‘Memorandum on the future of the Gilgit Agency’, 18 December 1930. (IOR/083/786.)
42 Confidential letter from H.J. Todd to Colonel J.L.R. Weir, First Assistant to the Resident in Kashmir, Gilgit, 19 April 1928.
43 Very Confidential letter from G. Loch to Sir John Wood (Resident in Kashmir), Gilgit, 12 January 1926 (IOR/1083/28).
44 Confidential letter from E. B. Howell (Resident in Kashmir) to the Foreign Secretary in Simla on ‘Extension of control in the Indus Kohistan’, Srinagar, 11 June 1928.
45 Demi-Official letter from Lt.-Col. G. D. Ogilvie, Resident in Kashmir, with accompanying ‘Memorandum on the future of the Gilgit Agency’, 18 December 1930. (IOR/083/786.)
46 Cf. copy of pencil drawn sketch map of Indus Kohistan c. 1913 (IOR, R/2, 1081/262).
47 The seasonal movement of colonial administration to hill stations had – despite initial opposition – become an established practise in British India from c. 1870 (Kennedy, Citation1996; Kenny, Citation1997).
48 General Staff, 1941, Military Report on Indus Kohistan, Black Mountain and Adjacent Territories. Simla: Government of India Press, (IOR L/MIL/17/13/51), p. 68.
49 See R. Parnell, Proposal for Forest Conservancy… p. 8.
50 At regular intervals the Indus could be crossed by skin rafts and cantilever bridges but Stein stayed on the west bank where the Swat State's annexation provided security cover. The main Indus gorge was an obsession of British strategic thinking – a needle eye for timber to be floated downstream – but not of the regional inhabitants. The gorge is highly relevant for communication as demonstrated by Stein's journey.