In the pre-British period, the indigenous communities enjoyed unrestricted use of forest. However, the British rule in India witnessed large-scale administrative and structural changes in the forest governance. The main motive of policies was to serve the interest of the British Empire and to maximize their profitability. Regulation and extraction of luxuriant forest resources of India through successive forest policies was one among various such measures.

The colonial forest policy can be divided into three distinct stages:

• Regulation of forest land (1860 to 1900): The realization of the size of Indian forest wealth made Britishers establish the Imperial Forest Department in 1864. Subsequently, they demarcated forest categories like the ‘reserved’ and ‘protected’ forests, which restricted the traditional rights of the native population, which was mainly tribal.
  • The Act of 1865 empowered the British government to declare any land covered with trees as a government forest and make rules to manage it. This made Britishers the sole benefactor from the resources, which was opposed by the local population.
• Regulation of activities inside forests (1900 to 1930): Several Forest Acts were promulgated to regulate the activities inside forest. The expansion of the railways and communication networks for better exploitation of Indian resources drove the colonial administrators deep into the countryside and forest areas, leading to ruthless plunder of forests for railway sleepers and construction of railway tracks. The Act of 1927 sought to regulate movement and transit of forest produce, and duty levied on timber and other forest produce.
• Sustainable management of forests (1930 to 1945): During the Great Wars, the true potential of forests was realized. By the beginning of 1941, the forest department was asked to meet the entire timber requirement of the Middle East forces and later of the Allied Forces in Iraq and Persian Gulf. This required large scale regeneration of already exploited forests. Therefore, more areas under reserved category were brought in Assam, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa etc.
  • Post-war years were marked by drawing up a forest policy to rehabilitate the overexploited forests through developmental plans like plantation activities, research in silviculture especially those of timber, which had served as substitute for steel.

The exploitative policies of Britishers led to erosion of traditional fabric of tribal life, customs and rituals, which resulted in conflicts of varying magnitude and violent nature of death and destruction. In the long run, the colonial forest policy severely altered the indigeneity of the tribal culture and severely compromised its demographic profile and ecological sustainability.