Bureaucratic agendas and conservation policy in Himachal Pradesh, 1865-1994

Indian Economic and Social History Review

Volumn 34, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 465-497

  Saberwal, Vasant K ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 28044457719     PISSN: 00194646     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/001946469703400403     Document Type: Article

References (129)

1. E.P. Stebbing, 'The Encroaching Sahara: The Threat to the West African Colonies', Geographical Journal, Vol. 85, 1935, p. 510.
2. E.A. Smythies, 'Erosion and Floods: Problems of Soil and Water Conservation in the United Provinces', Indian Forester (hereafter IF), Vol. 65, 1939, p. 179.
3. I use the term 'degradation discourse' here to incorporate a specific, interconnected body of ideas, centred on the connections between deforestation on the one hand, and increased erosion, flooding and overall aridity on the other. A key characteristic of this discourse is the simplification of ecological phenomenon, one that enables a smoothing over of variations from one context to another. This discourse has been adopted within both the popular media as well as within official conservation circles in most parts of the world, although my primary reference here is to the discourse as it matured within the writings of the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh Forest Departments between 1865 and the present.
4. For research on African rangelands and a critique of the standard argument regarding the encroaching Sahara desert see J. Ellis and D. Swift, 'Stability of African Pastoral Systems: Alternate Paradigms and Implications for Development', Journal of Range Management, Vol. 41, 1988, pp. 450-59;
5. B. Forse, 'The Myth of the Marching Desert', New Scientist, Vol. 4, 1989, p. 3132;
6. T. Binns, 'Is Desertification a Myth?', Geography, Vol. 75, 1990, pp. 106-13;
7. R. Mace, 'Conservation Biology: Overgrazing Overstated', Nature, Vol. 349, 1991, pp. 280-81;
8. C.J. Tucker, H. Dregne, and W. Newcomb, 'Expansion and Contraction of the Sahara Desert from 1980 to 1990', Science, Vol. 253, 1991, pp. 299-301;
9. R. Behnke and I. Scoones, Rethinking Range Ecology: Implications for Rangeland Management in Africa, London, 1993.
10. See L. Hamilton, 'What are the Impacts of Himalayan Deforestation on the Ganges-Brahmaputra Lowlands and Delta? Assumptions and Facts', Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 7, 1987, pp. 256-63;
11. J. Ives and B. Messerli, The Himalayan Dilemma: Reconciling Development and Conservation, New York, 1989;
12. Centre for Science and Environment, Floods, Flood plains and Environmental Myths, State of India's Environment: Third Citizen's Report. New Delhi.
13. Ramachandra Guha, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya, New Delhi, 1989;
14. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, New Delhi, 1992.
15. A literal understanding of the term desiccation is, of course, the drying up of something. I use the 'desiccationist' discourse through this article to incorporate a larger body of ideas, centred on the connections between deforestation on the one hand, and increased erosion, flooding and overall aridity on the other.
16. R. Rajan, Imperial Environmentalism: The Agendas and Ideologies of Natural Resource Management in British Colonial Forestry 1800-1945, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1994;
17. R. Grove, Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism 1600-1860. New Delhi. 1995.
18. Rajan, Imperial Environmentalism.
19. A. Prasad, Forests and Subsistence in Colonial India: A Study of Central Provinces, 1830-1945, Ph.D. dissertation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994;
20. M. Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest, New Delhi, 1996;
21. K. Sivaramakrishnan, Forests, Politics and Governance in Bengal, 1794-1994, Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, New Haven, 1996.
22. Sivaramakrishnan, Forests, Politics and Governance.
23. V.K. Saberwal, 'Pastoral Politics: Gaddi Grazing, Degradation and Biodiversity Conservation in Himachal Pradesh, India', Conservation Biology, Vol. 10, 1996, pp. 741-49.
24. V.K. Saberwal, Pastoral Politics: Bureaucratic Agendas, Shepherd Land-Use Practices, and Conservation Policies in Himachal Pradesh, India, 1865-1994, Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, New Haven, 1996.
25. I should stress here that I am not suggesting that human use of resources in the Himalaya does not contribute to degradation of one sort or another. Indeed, deforestation can have significant consequences with regard to problems of meeting local fuelwood, fodder and other non-timber requirements. The absence or presence of forests is unlikely, however, to play a dramatic role in the control of floods, the alleviation of water shortages or the moderation of climate. My primary interest here is in examining the historical process by which a specific rhetoric has come to underlie policy pronouncements of the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh Forest Departments, a rhetoric that attributes to forests near-magical capabilities of soil and water conservation.
26. Parts of Himachal Pradesh separated from the Punjab in the 1950s and became incorporated into PEPSU. Himachal Pradesh attained statehood in 1971.
27. A number of researchers have commented on this conflict at various levels within the government, and with respect to various parts of the country. Ramachandra Guha, An Early Environmental Debate: The Making of the 1878 Forest Act, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1990, Vol. 27, pp. 65-84;
28. Rajan, Imperial Environmentalism;
29. Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest;
30. Sivaramakrishnan, Forests, Politics and Governance. Researchers differ on their evaluation of the duration of this conflict, with Guha and Rangarajan suggesting that the passage of the Indian Forest Act of 1878 effectively evened the power differentials between the two departments, while Rajan and Sivaramakrishnan have pointed to a longer lasting conflict. This essay supports the latter view.
31. FC Punjab, to the Secy. to Govt. Punjab, PWD, July 27, 1865. PWD (Forests), A Progs., Feb. 1866, No. 18.
32. Secy. to Govt. Punjab, PWD, to CF Punjab, Feb. 23, 1866. Punjab PWD (Forests) A Progs., Feb. 1866, No. 20.
33. Secy. to Govt. Punjab, PWD, to C&S, Jullundur Div. Punjab PWD (Forests) A Progs., Aug. 1866, No. 2; DC Kangra to CF Punjab, July 24, 1866. Punjab PWD (Forests) A Progs., Aug. 1866, No. 21; Secy. to Govt. Punjab, PWD, to FC Punjab, Aug. 24, 1866. Punjab PWD (Forests) A Progs., Aug. 1866, No. 22; C&S Jullundur, to Secy. to FC Punjab, Sep. 21, 1866. PWD (Forests) A Progs., Nov. 1866, No. 1.
34. B. Powell, CF Punjab, to Secy. to Govt. Punjab, PWD, Nov. 1, 1870. Punjab PWD (Forests) A Progs., Feb. 1871, No. 15.
35. Punjab RAC (Forests) A Progs., July 1872, No. 3.
36. A Brandreth, C&S Jullundur Div. to the Offg. Secy. to FC Punjab, April 22, 1872. Punjab RAC (Forests) A Progs., July 1872, No. 3.
37. C&S, Rawalpindi Div., to the Secy. to the FC, Punjab, May 5, 1876. Punjab Forest A Progs. August 1877, No. 3A.
38. Secy. to the Govt. Punjab, to CF Punjab, May 26, 1873. Punjab RAC (Forests) A Progs., May 1873, No. 5.
39. T.H. Thornton, Secy. to the Govt. Punjab, to the Offg. CF Punjab, April 27, 1874. Punjab RAC (Forests) A Progs., April 1874, No. 4.
40. Punjab RAC (Forests) A Progs., Oct. 1877, No. 2.
41. Ibid.
42. Paske, DC Kangra, to C&S Jullundur Div., Oct. 5, 1875. RAC (Forests), A Progs., Oct. 1877.
43. Major G.J. Van Someren, CF Punjab, to the Jun. Secy. to Govt. Punjab, Nov. 15, 1882. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1884, No. 9.
44. B. Ribbentrop, CF Punjab, to the Jun. Secy. to Govt. Punjab, Jan. 24, 1884. Appendix to Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1884, No. 16.
45. R.G. Thomson, Offg. Rev. Secy. to Govt. Punjab and its Dependencies, to J.M. Douie, Sen. Secy. to FC Punjab. Oct. 3, 1890. RAD (Forests) A Progs., Jan. 1891, No. 1-2.
46. Proposals on the relationship between Forest and Revenue Department officials, submitted by the FC Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1885, No. 10.
47. Circular No. 3267, May 8, 1886, from FC's Office to all Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners, Punjab. Basta 25, Serial 377, File 10 (109), HSA.
48. Ibid.
49. Letter No. C/108, July 23, 1887. Basta 25, Serial 377, File 10 (109), HSA.
50. R.G. Thomson, Offg. Secy. to Govt. Punjab and its Dependencies, to J.M. Douie, Sen. Secy. to FC Punjab. Oct. 3, 1890. RAD (Forests) A Progs., Jan. 1891, No. 1-2.
51. G. Smyth, C&S Jullundur Div. to the Sen. Secy. to FC Punjab, No. 1265, May 28, 1891. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1893, No. 40; E.B. Steedman, DC Hoshiarpur, to the C&S Jullundur Div., No. 33, February 7, 1891. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1893, No. 41.
52. DC Montgomery, to C&S Lahore Div., March 7, 1889. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., June 1890, No. 13.
53. O'Brien, DC Kangra, to the C&S Jullundur Div., No. 782, May 21, 1891. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1893, No. 43.
54. See R.P. Tucker, 'The Evolution of Transhumant Grazing in the Punjab Himalaya', Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 6, 1985, pp. 17-28.
55. Annual Progress Report of the Punjab Forest Administration, 1907-08, 1908-09, 1910-11, 1911-12, 1913-14.
56. No. 124/125 Sep. 29, 1894. Basta 27, Serial 401, File 10 (125)-IV, Himachal Pradesh State Archives, Simla (hereafter HSA).
57. No. 1119, Aug. 30, 1895. Basta 27, Serial 401, File 10(125)-IV, HSA.
58. To the Chief Secy. to the Govt. of Punjab, June 7, 1908. Basta 27, Serial 400, File 10(125)-III, HSA.
59. CF Punjab to DFO Rawalpindi Div., Oct. 14-18, 1906. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., April 1907, No. 30.
60. M.W. Fenton, Commissioner, Rawalpindi Div., to the Sen. Secy. to the FC Punjab, Nov. 3, 1906. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., April 1907, No. 26.
61. Questions relating to forest conservancy in Kangra. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., April 1913, No. 1-22.
62. In Saberwal, Pastoral Politics: Bureaucratic Agendas, I have argued that this decrease represented a decrease in the numbers of animals reported by the Caddis in response to the imposition of a higher grazing tax, rather than a real decrease in numbers of animals grazed by the herders.
63. Powney Thompson, DC Kangra to Commissioner, Jullundur Div., Dec. 30, 1911. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., April 1913, No. 16.
64. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., April 1913, No. 17.
65. J.M. Dunnett, Jun. Secy., to the FC Punjab to the Rev. Secy. to Govt., Punjab, May 25, 1914. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., June 1915, No. 20.
66. Sen. Secy. to the FC Punjab to the Rev. Secy. to Govt. Punjab, Feb. 12, 1920. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., May 1920, No. 4.
67. McIntosh, CF Eastern Circle, Punjab, to the Sen. Secy. to the FC Punjab, 13-15 Jan., 1919. Punjab RAD (Forests) A Progs., Dec. 1919, No. 90.
68. Note on the economics of nomadic grazing as practiced in the Kangra District. From the CF, Eastern Circle, Punjab, to the FC Punjab, March 1st/2nd, 1920. Basta 24, Serial 352, File 10 (78)-II, HSA.
69. Comments by the FC, dated March 20, 1920, the DC, dated May 20, 1920, and the Naib Tehsildar, dated May 8, 1920 all in Basta 24, Serial 352, File 10 (78)-II, HSA.
70. FC Punjab to DC Kangra, May 1, 1923. Basta 24, Serial 352, File 10 (78)-II, HSA.
71. No. 5538, from the Comm. Jullundur to the Sen. Secy. to FC Punjab, 31st Oct./12th Nov. 1923. Basta 24, Serial 352, File 10 (78)-II, HSA.
72. No. 85 C, Malik Zaman Mehdi Khan, DC Kangra District, to Comm. Jullundur Div., April 26, 1924. Basta 24, Serial 352, File 10 (78)-II, HSA.
73. Inspection note by H.M. Glover, Offg. CF Eastern Circle, Punjab, 1925. p. 5. Basta 23, Serial 340, File 10 (66)-II. HSA.
74. DC Kangra to Comm. Jullundur, Jan. 19, 1932. Basta 23, Serial 344, File 10 (74), HSA.
75. See David Anderson, 'Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Conservation in East Africa During the 1930s', African Affairs, Vol. 83, 1984, pp. 321-43;
76. William Beinart, 'Soil Erosion, Conservation and Ideas About Development: A Southern African Exploration, 1900-1960', Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 11, 1984, pp. 52-83;
77. Saberwal, Pastoral Politics: Bureaucratic Agendas, for a more detailed account of the growing international concern regarding desertification and intensified flooding linked to local misuse of land resources.
78. R.M. Gorrie, Punjab Erosion Conference, IF, Vol. 62, 1936, p. 473.
79. Ramachandra Guha, 'Forestry in British and Post-British India: A Historical Analysis', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XVIII, No. 46, 1983, pp. 1940-1947.
80. These findings are based on files consulted at the Office of the Conservator of Forests, Nahan Circle. Specifically, I have used files CXXV-2 Vols. III, IV, VI, and CXXV-3 Vol. II.
81. Grazing Advisory Committee, Report of the Grazing Advisory Committee on the Grazing Policy of Himachal Pradesh, 1971, Simla, Himachal Pradesh.
82. March 19, 1974, File CXXV-3, Vol. II, Correspondence Regarding Grazing Advisory Committee. Feb. 1971-Oct. 1976. CFs Office, Nahan.
83. May 16, 1985, File CXXV-2, Vol. VI. Grazing of Sheep and Goats, Feb. 1984-Nov. 1986. CFs Office, Nahan.
84. June 30, 1985, File CXXV-2, Vol. VI. Grazing of Sheep and Goats, Feb. 1984-Nov. 1986. CFs Office, Nahan.
85. I have explored this transition in greater detail in Saberwal, Pastoral Politics: Bureaucratic Agendas.
86. R.P. Tucker, 'The British Empire and India's Forest Resources: The Timberlands of Assam and Kumaun, 1914-1950', in J.F. Richards and R.P. Tucker, eds, World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century, Durham/London, 1988, pp. 91-111;
87. Guha, The Unquiet Woods.
88. See note by Governor-General of India, following a tour of the Punjab Plains. Foreign Dept., A Progs. March 1851, No. 67-68.
89. J.L. Stewart, General Report on the Deodar Forests upon the Upper Chenab in Chota Lahaul and Pangi; General Report on the Deodar Forests of the Ravi; Report on the Fuel Bearing Tracts of the Southern Punjab, Punjab PWD (Forests) A Progs., July 1866, No. 37, 48.
90. See for example, B.H. Baden-Powell, CF, Punjab, writing to the Offg. Secy. to Govt. Punjab, March 5, 1872, regarding the need to stop all grazing in forests close to Kassauli immediately; Correspondence on 'Supply of Fuel to Simla Hill Stations', Punjab Forest A Progs., Sep. 1875, No. 3; W. Schlich, CF, Punjab to Secy. to Govt. Punjab, March 1st, 1880, 'Plantation of Hill Cantonments, Dagshai', Punjab Forest A Progs., RAD, April 1880, No. 2.
91. See for example, remarks by Under Secy., Railways and Forest Branch, PWD NW Provinces. RAD, (Forests) B Progs., March 1865, No. 32-36; Report on the Supply of Fuel for the Punjab Railway, by J.L. Stewart, Sept. 17, 1864.
92. Rajan, Imperial Environmentalism;
93. Grove, Green Imperialism.
94. H. Cleghorn, 1861. Report upon the Forests of the Punjab and the Western Himalaya, Roorkee.
95. RAD (Forests), May 1899, A Progs., No. 7-10.
96. Fagan, DC Kangra. Punjab Forest A Progs., April 1914, No. 18.
97. Holland, Asst. CF. Report on the denudation in the Siwaliks and Lower Himalaya between the Sutlej and Ghaggar rivers. June 7, 1912, Punjab Forest A Progs., July 1912, No. 6.
98. J.W.A. Grieve, 'Note on the economics of nomadic grazing as practiced in Kangra district', IF, Vol. 28, 1920, p. 333.
99. Forests in relation to climate, water conservation and erosion. Extracts from the Proceedings of the British Empire Forestry Conference, South Africa, 1935, printed by the Manager, Govt. of India Press, New Delhi, 1937, p. 16.
100. L.B. Holland, Report on the Denudation and Erosion in the Low Hills of Punjab, 1928, Government Press, Lahore;
101. B.O. Coventry, Denudation in the Punjab hills, Indian Forest Records, Vol. XIV, Part II, 1929;
102. R.M. Gorrie, The Foothills Grazing Problem in India, Agriculture and Livestock in India, Vol. 7, 1937, pp. 579-84.
103. See also R.M. Gorrie, Land Management in the Punjab Foothills, Superintendent Govt. Printing, 1941, Lahore, and H.M. Glover, Erosion in the Punjab: its Causes and Cures, 1946, Lahore;
104. R.M. Gorrie, Land Management in the Punjab Foothills, Superintendent Govt. Printing, 1941, Lahore.
105. E.A. Smythies, 'Soil Erosion Problems in India', IF, Vol. 64, 1938, pp. 704-8.
106. Rajan, Imperial Environmentalism.
107. For additional examples of the dramatic increase in the level of alarm in forester writings at this time see writings in the Indian Forester.
108. P.B. Sears, Deserts on the March, Oklahoma, 1935.
109. Beinart, Soil Erosion, Conservation;
110. Anderson, Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography.
111. B.S. Parmar, Report on the Grazing Problems and Policy of Himachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh Forest Department, Simla, 1959, p. 2.
112. Report of the Grazing Advisory Committee on the Grazing Policy of Himachal Pradesh, Simla, 1971.
113. In calculating levels of timber extraction I have combined data for the Beas, Chamba, Bashahr, Simla Hill States, Seraj, Hoshiarpur, Kangra and Kulu divisions. These political divisions did not always exist, and may have existed under different administrative categories over the past century, but all are a part of the state of Himachal Pradesh today. The data is from Annual Progress Reports of the Punjab Forest Department, Annual Reports of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department, and from Himachal Pradesh Forest Statistics.
114. Hamilton, 'What are the Impacts of Himalayan Deforestation';
115. Ives and Messerli, The Himalayan Dilemma;
116. Centre for Science and Environment, Floods, Flood Plains, and Environmental Myths.
117. See also Saberwal, Pastoral Politics: Bureaucratic Agendas.
118. Hamilton, 'What are the Impacts of Himalayan Deforestation'.
119. See J.M. Busch and J.D. Hewlett, 'A Review of Catchment Experiments to Determine the Effect of Vegetation Changes on Water Yield and Evapotranspiration', Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 55, 1982, pp. 3-23, for an exhaustive review of research on the role of vegetation change in shaping catchment hydrological regimes.
120. See Saberwal, 'Pastoral Politics: Gaddi Grazing, Degradation', for a more detailed exploration of the impact of Gaddi grazing on the Himachal Pradesh vegetation.
121. G.S. Puri, The Problem of Land Erosion and Landslips in the Hoshiarpur Siwaliks, IF, Vol. 75, 1949, pp. 45-51;
122. also see in particular the recent counter to the widespread assumption of the southward advance of the Saharan Desert by Forse, 'The Myth of the Marching Desert';
123. Binns, 'Is Desertification a Myth?';
124. Tucker et al., 'Expansion and Contraction of the Saharan Desert'.
125. With regard to the question of land degradation associated with overgrazing by east African pastoralists see Ellis and Swift, 'Stability of African Pastoral Ecosystems';
126. Behnke and Scoones, Rethinking Range Ecology.
127. For a recent commentary from within the ecological sciences on the uncertainties in ecology, see R. Hilborn and D. Ludwig, 'The Limits of Applied Ecological Research', Ecological Applications, Vol. 3, 1993, pp. 550-52.
128. Earlier in the text, I have made reference to a number of works that have suggested the presence of a greatly exaggerated notion of degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. With regards to West Africa, see J. Fairhead and M. Leach, Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in the Forest-Savanna Mosaic, New York, 1996.
129. Rajan, Imperial Environmentalism.