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Commonwealth
Forests | | |
 Major achievements
An enormous amount of traditional knowledge was collated and published and many major
advances in knowledge also resulted from the work of the silviculturist(s), forest botanists and
other scientists. Many notable publications on the natural resources and timbers of India –
which at that time included Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar- appeared well
before 1900, the botany of the forests was well explored and forest floras and zoological
treatises had also been prepared. By the 1920s the silvics of all the major tree species had
been studied and published and well before the outbreak of the second world war text books
on Indian forests and their silviculture were widely published and on every forest officer’s
shelves. Although not research, most of the forests belonging to the state were managed
under carefully controlled working plans and the forest destruction that had marked the pre-Dalhousie
era was a thing of the past. Research had played a key role in this. Extensive
studies on properties of wood, bamboo and non timber forest products were carried out and
published. For the first half of the 20th century the pattern of State (reserved) forests
with
research carried out largely by professional foresters within the Forest Service was used as a
model. This structure was not only adopted for the other colonies of the British Empire but also
for Great Britain itself when the Forestry Commission was established in 1919.
In the post-second World War period many changes took place which put, and continue to
put, great pressure on the sub-continent’s forests. The most important of these, though it is
not always highlighted, was very substantial population increase, not only in present-day India
but equally in Pakistan and Bangladesh – more than an order of magnitude. In many Indian
States Agricultural Universities have been established, 26 of which run courses in forestry, in
parallel with increasing amounts of forest research, particularly in sociological subjects. Much
research on the biology and management of natural forests has continued and many exotic
species introduced and studied resulting in numerous publications on recommended
technologies. Sociological pressures continue to build in relation to the natural forests in most
parts of the region and Working Plans are becoming increasingly difficult to administer and
implement. India has by far the largest forest sector in the region but Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka exhibit similar trends, with centralised research and emphasis on . The role of
NGOs and the private sector in research is also increasing steadily.
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