The creation of the edifice of imperial forestry in the late nineteenth century had major consequences for the people, trees, and wildlife of India’s Central Provinces. The new regime of “command and control” of forested hills and valleys marked an ecological watershed.

Fencing the Forest draws on archival and printed sources to shed fresh light on the ecological dimensions of the colonial impact on South Asia. The extensive woodlands of the Central Provinces of India became vital to imperial interests in the late nineteenth century, and this book argues that it was the protection of these interests, rather than conservation per se, that was at the heart of imperial forestry in India.
The changing responses of rural forest users to the new pressures unleashed by colonial forestry and the fortunes of the land they lived on are the key themes of this study.

This book will be useful to historians of modern India, the environment and wildlife, and anyone interested in ecological issues. This Second Edition includes a new Preface which surveys the literature on its subject since the book’s first publication.

Mahesh Rangarajan is Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Ashoka University, Haryana. His area of expertise is forestry, wildlife, and environmental issues. His many books include India’s Wildlife History: An Introduction (2000), and Nature and Nation: Essays on Environmental History (2015).