A STUDY OF COLONIAL RESOURCE EXTRACTION IN SOUTHERN ASSAM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i2.2023.2744Keywords:
Ecology, Timber, Colonial Economy, Forest ResourcesAbstract [English]
This article studies the impact of an extractive colonial economy on the local ecology especially timber resources in Cachar, located in present-day southern Assam. It engages with untamed colonial exploitation of the huge forest reserves, thereby depleting the region of its critical resources. Reports of various colonial official surveys created an appetite for the British Raj to develop an interest in the natural resources of Cachar. Equipped with information about navigable rivers, the colonial rulers began to see the commercial prospects of exploiting the natural resources, especially timber. When the Assam Forest Department was established, the exploitation of this wood in Cachar and elsewhere in Assam became more systematic and streamlined. This is evident with the construction of the Assam-Bengal railway in 1898 in opening up Cachar to an extractive colonial economy.
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