What was one major economic reason for cutting forests under colonial rule?

Correct answer: Increasing revenue and profit

The direct answer is A: increasing revenue and profit. Under colonial rule, forests were treated as economic resources rather than mainly as living environments used by local communities. Colonial governments cleared forests for railway sleepers, shipbuilding, plantations, commercial timber and expansion of cultivated land. Selling wood, collecting taxes and controlling land could increase state income and private profit. Option A is correct because revenue and commercial gain were major motives behind large-scale deforestation. Option B is wrong because worshipping trees does not explain colonial commercial cutting; many local communities respected forests, but that was not the colonial government’s economic motive. Option C is wrong because colonial authorities often changed forests and cleared them instead of leaving them untouched. Option D is wrong because stopping hunting was not the main reason for cutting forests; in many situations colonial officials and elites promoted or practised hunting. The reasoning is: colonial rule sought resources and income; forests supplied valuable timber and land; therefore trees were cut for revenue and profit. Memory cue: in colonial forest history, connect deforestation with railways, timber, plantations, cultivated land, revenue and commercial profit—not conservation.