Forestry

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The Indian Forestry Department of India was created in 1867, under the leadership of Dr Dietrich Brandis [1]

FIBIS resources

  • "The Indian Forest Services in the India Office Records: Questions and answers for researchers" by Ian Baxter FIBIS Journal Number 30 (Autumn 2013) pages 23-31

Training of Officers

  • 1867 - 1885 student officers received training in France and Germany.
  • 1885 -1906 student officers received training at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill in Surrey, UK.
  • 1906-1927 student officers received training via Oxford , Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities.
  • 1927 -1938 student officers were trained at the Imperial Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun, which had been established in 1906.

Some sources of records

Asian and African Reading Room (British Library)

  • Names of individuals may be found in the annual directories on the open shelves
  • The forestry department was considered part of the Public Works Department. References to employment service may , therefore, be found amongst the L/PWD records at the British Library. For example, L/PWD/8/11 relates to Birth/baptismal certificates in candidates' application papers for the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill 1871-1903.
  • L/PJ/6/776 – relates to Birth/baptismal certificates in Indian Forest Service candidates' application papers (1906)
  • Forest Department 1893-1900 Information to be found in L/F/10 221-228
  • See also Bengal Civil Servants 1706 - 1917 where it is indicated that there are over 50 'misfiled' record copies of Uncovenanted Officers in the Forestry Dept between the covenanted servants for 1884 and 1885 (L/F/10/45 - IOR Neg 57085-6 )
  • For more about the L/F/10 records, see L/F/10 Records of Service 1702-1928

Records Online

Lists of Officers in Survey and Forest Departments on 1st October 1873 Pdf download from Pahar- Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.

Z-Force in Burma, WW2

Employees of the Burma Forest Service, the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation and Foucar Brothers, one of the large timber companies operating in Burma, were recruited to the 'Z-Force', a WW2 joint Allied reconnaissance and sabotage unit, who became 'Johnnies'. It was decided to recruit volunteers who were prepared to go into Burma, hide themselves in selected areas, and report back any information that they could pick up. "All had a thorough knowledge of the jungle, its inhabitants, and their language; all were tough and used to living on their own far from civilization; and all possessed courage of outstanding quality".[2][3]

Also see External links below.

Also see

Books by Forest Officers are included in

External links

"Wood Who Buried In Woods: Hugo Wood- 1870 to 1933" Keralaarchaeology.com.

Historical books online

  • Various editions of the monthly magazine The Indian Forester covering a period between 1880 and 1911, with some for the 1930s, can be found at archive.org. Editions from c 1884 have the additional title A Monthly Magazine Of Forestry Agriculture, Shikar And Travel. Note however, some editions are do not have a date of publication, or are classified as published in 1875.
Additionally, most of the editions Volume 1, 1876 to Volume 33 , 1907 are available to download as a pdf files from Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset, located under “Journals”.
Many individuals are mentioned in the included "Extracts from Official Gazettes". As an example of the latter, Appendix: ”Extracts from Official Gazettes” (125 pages) following page 484, Volume XXIV (1898) Archive.org
Jungle by-ways in India; leaves from the note-book of a sportsman and a naturalist by Edward Percy Stebbing 1911 Archive.org. The author spent sixteen years in the Indian Forest Service
Volume I only (although catalogued Vol. 2] 1911 edition, published in four volumes. Archive.org
The author was appointed as Assistant Conservator of Forests in 1866 at Hoshangabad, C P.
  • Forest Life and Sport in India by Sainthill Eardley-Wilmot, late Inspector-General of Forests to the Government of India. 1910 Archive.org. The author joined the Indian Forest Service in December 1873 at Lucknow.
The Life of an Elephant by S Eardley-Wilmot 1912 Archive.org
  • Experiences of a jungle-wallah by Hugh Nisbet 1910 Southeast Asia Visions. The author worked for the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation from 1879. The company logged teak in the Burma forests.
The company is mentioned evacuating the European families of its forest officers in 1942, in Songs of The Survivors, page 56, stories about the Goan community and the Trek Out of Burma in 1942.
Indiaʼs Forest Wealth by E A Smythies 1925 Archive.org.
Big Game Shooting in Nepal by Smythies 1942. Full title: Big Game Shooting in Nepal. With leaves from the Maharaja's sporting diary by Evelyn Arthur Smythies. Link to a download, Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. If download button does not display, locate under Books/ Nepal/1942.
E. A. Smythies Wikipedia. Forester and philatelist.
Ten Thousand Miles on Elephants by Olive Smythies 1961. Link to a download, Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. If download button does not display, locate under Books/ Nepal/1961. Wife of E. A. Smythies. "It documents the lives and conditions in various places in India, as well as the wildlife and the experiences of travelling". Olive Smythies also wrote Tiger Lady : adventures in the Indian jungle 1953, available at the British Library UIN: BLL01008310976 and Jungle Families 1954 UIN: BLL01003427846. Article: "Lady and the Tiger" page 4 The Australian woman's mirror. Vol. 29 No. 45 (30 September 1953).nla.gov.au.
  • With A Camera In Tiger Land by F W Champion 1928 (first published 1927) Archive.org. The author was in the Imperial Forest Service of India, a keen naturalist and photographer.
The Jungle In Sunlight And Shadow by FW Champion 1934. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India..

Notes

  1. Dietrich Brandis - Wikipedia.
  2. Medals of Major C.G. ´Micky´ Merton, November 25, 2010 spink.com, now an archived page.
  3. Denis Wilmot Rae, born circa 1908, an archived webpage.