History
Why Deforestation?
वनों की कटाई क्यों?
In this Class 9 History topic from “Forest Society and Colonialism,” students examine why forests were cleared and how colonial policies transformed forest use. They learn how railways, shipbuilding, commercial timber, plantations and expanding agriculture increased demand for wood and land. The topic also explores the effects on forest communities, shifting cultivators and pastoralists, including restrictions on customary rights, loss of livelihoods and resistance to state control. It helps students connect deforestation with colonial economic interests and social change.
Practice questions
What is the strongest basis for calling deforestation a multi-causal process?HardLevel 51How is the relation between local loss and colonial benefit visible in deforestation?HardLevel 51Where is labour demand clearly visible in colonial deforestation?HardLevel 51How is neglect of local knowledge visible in deforestation?HardLevel 51Which forest-management practice in colonial India involved clearing natural mixed forests and planting trees of a single species?HardLevel 51Why did commercial crops and land tax become important together in deforestation?HardLevel 51How can colonial priorities be identified in the causes of deforestation?HardLevel 51Why can deforestation be considered the centre of conflict between forest society and colonial rule?HardLevel 51Which approach is best while answering deforestation at hard level?HardLevel 51Which is the most balanced historical conclusion about deforestation?HardLevel 51What deeper economic purpose was hidden behind calling forests waste land under colonial rule?ExpertLevel 49Why did the demand for railway sleepers become a structural cause of deforestation?ExpertLevel 49How was the demand for Indian timber for shipbuilding linked with British imperial power?ExpertLevel 49Why can agricultural expansion in colonial deforestation be called not only a food need but a revenue strategy?ExpertLevel 49How did tea coffee and rubber plantations change the use of forest land?ExpertLevel 49Why can the creation of forest departments be seen as a tool of colonial control?ExpertLevel 49Promotion of settled cultivation and restrictions on shifting cultivation show which colonial state interest?ExpertLevel 49Why should deforestation be called a political economic process instead of a natural process?ExpertLevel 49What was the main ideological difference between local society and the colonial state in viewing forests?ExpertLevel 49Which common cause of deforestation becomes clear by studying railways and shipbuilding together?ExpertLevel 49