The practice of scientific forestry in India began with Sir Dietrich Brandis, who took over as Inspector General of Forests in 1864 A.D. and under whose guidance State forest departments were created in various British ruled provinces. It was in 1894 A.D. that Government of India formulated a Forest Policy, the first of its kind which has been a trend setter for forest management throughout the British Empire.

It was this policy which formed the basis of forest management in India till Independence. Recognizing the importance of forests in maintaining a healthy soil-environment and agriculture this policy sought to preserve the forest cover over hill slopes and marginal lands, restrict shifting cultivation and manage densely wooded forests on commercial lines while forests which yielded inferior timber, fuel wood, fodder etc. were set aside for use of local people.

Needless to say, the policy though good for the times in which it was formulated was implemented half-heartedly. Wanton destruction of forests was permitted in interest of agriculture, commercial activity and military requirements of the rulers. However, the demarkation of protected or reserved forests following the implementation of the policy did help to preserve a large part of our forest wealth till independence.

Following independence a Central Forestry Board was set up in 1950 and in 1952 a National policy was developed on the lines of which Indian forests were managed till about 1988 A.D. As there was more emphasis on development, industrialization and rapid growth in all spheres of our national activity, immediately following the independence, conservation of forests received little attention.

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Enormous destruction of our natural forests continued for about two or three decades and we have lost about 3.9 million hectares of precious forest wealth since 1950 A.D. About 2.50 million hectare forests have been destroyed for expansion of agriculture, 0.41 million hectares have been lost to river valley projects, about 1.5 million hectares for industries, 0.56 million hectares for road construction and about 0.40 million hectares for miscellaneous purposes.

We do not have precise information about the extent of deforestation as earlier data about our forests are unreliable. According to a report on State of Forests, Govt, of India, 1991, which is based on satellite images and is, therefore, more reliable, actual vegetation cover is about 64.00 million hectares out of the total land area of about 328.72 million hectares. This means that about 19.4% of our land is covered by forests which are rather inadequate. The National Forest Policy of 1952 considered a forest cover of about 33% as desirable for our country.

It is, however, satisfactory to note that the total forest cover has undergone little change since 1980 A.D. During the previous decade (i.e., from 1980 to 1990 A.D.) we have been able to control deforestation effectively. It will be apparent from the figures in table 9.5 that though open forests and scrub-land has diminished area under dense forest and mangrove vegetation has actually gone up.

Indian forests have been grouped under 16 different categories which are listed in Table 9.6. However, the most common forests of India are tropical forests of different kinds which together constitute about 81 % of our forest wealth. A number of products are obtained from our forests. An interesting thing to note here is that most of the forest products are far from being adequate for our needs. This is naturally due to depletion of our forest wealth while the demand for forest products has gone up considerably due to rapid rise in population. Much of the gap is covered either by plantations, imports, other alternative sources or substitutes.

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The National Forests Policy 1988, which replaces the Forest Policy of 1952, lays emphasis on conservation of our existing forests, extension of our forest wealth through soil conservation, reforestation and maintenance of environmental stability through restoration of necessary ecological balances. Earnest efforts are being made to implement its directives.