The Forest Policies of 1894 and 1952

In one line

Indian forest policy was written three times, in 1894, 1952 and 1988, and the first two treated the forest as a national asset to be produced from while the third treated it as an ecological system to be maintained.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Indian Forest Policy 1894 subordinated forestry to agriculture and treated the forest as a source of revenue. The National Forest Policy 1952, the first policy of independent India, retained the productive object, introduced the goal of one third of the country's land area under forest, and asserted the principle that the accident of a village being situated close to a forest does not prejudice the right of the country as a whole to receive the benefits of a national asset. The National Forest Policy 1988 reversed the object, and its own preamble records why.

The 1894 policy

Treated in the chapter on pre-independence policy. Its four propositions in short: the sole object of State forest administration is the public benefit; agriculture prevails over forestry; forests are classified by purpose; and rights of the population are to be regulated and, where inconvenient, limited.

The 1952 policy

What it was. A resolution of the Government of India in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, No. 13/52/F, dated 12 May 1952. The 1988 Policy names it in its own preamble as the policy it is replacing, which is the safest way to date and attribute it.

Its principal contributions.

The one-third goal. The 1952 Policy set the objective that a proportion of the country's land area should be under forest, and the figure of one third of the total land area, with a higher proportion in the hills, entered Indian policy here. The 1988 Policy retains that goal and states it as a minimum.

The classification by function. Protection forests, national forests, village forests and tree lands, distinguished by the purpose each served, with national forests supplying the country's industrial and defence needs.

The subordination of the local to the national. The 1952 Policy contains the proposition, much criticised since, that a village situated near a forest has no greater claim on it than any other part of the country, and that the accident of location does not entitle the local population to prejudice the national interest in the resource.

The production orientation. Forests were to supply timber for industry, for the railways and for defence, and the language throughout is of a national asset to be managed for yield.

Why the criticism matters for an answer. The 1952 proposition about the village near the forest is the clearest statement in Indian policy of the position that the Forest Rights Act 2006 was enacted to reverse, and quoting its substance is a much stronger way to show the change than describing it.