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| 1 |
ID:
102752
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Much of the deforestation seen in the Himalayas today can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century when railway construction began in colonial India. In this paper I argue that the construction and expansion of railways promoted by the British colonial state was designed to enable efficient resource extraction from India and that this process itself depleted India's natural resources such as forests. In analysing the temporal and spatial unevenness of this deforestation in the specific context of the Punjab province I have drawn on government records of various departments, Parliamentary reports, books, scientific journals and newspapers as primary sources.
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| 2 |
ID:
121983
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Recent studies have stressed the need for micro-histories of the environment so that important differences and similarities at local, regional and national level might be revealed. This paper analyses the process and patterns of environmental degradation at regional level by taking the case of deforestation in colonial Punjab by studying its implication at the level of empire. More specifically, it examines three aspects of how the operation and expansion of railways from 1869 to 1884, a peak period of railway expansion, affected the forests of the Punjab's plains. First, the paper analyses the reasons for large-scale railway expansion in the Punjab by discussing spatial and temporal expansion. Secondly, the impact of the railway firewood demand on the Punjab's forests between 1860 and 1884 is examined, specifically, the conditions that facilitated the increased dependence of the railways on firewood. Next follows an examination of the temporally varying nature of deforestation, given that railway firewood demand was determined by railway line openings. This section also includes a discussion on the nature of the colonial state response to the deforestation crisis and its role in maintaining the fuel supply to the railways. Finally, in the context of deforestation in the Punjab, the paper discusses how and why railway fuel changed from firewood to coal.
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