Forestry

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

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.
  • Entrance requirements c 1872 Forest Department in India page 168 Index Scholasticus: Sons and daughters. A guide to parents in the choice of educational institutions, preparatory to professional or other occupation of their children by R. Kemp Philp 1872 Archive.org
• 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, and in Port Blair on 1st October 1872. Pdf download from Pahar- Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.

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

• Classified list of forest officers of the Imperial and Provincial services in India and Burma on 1st January 1916 Archive.org

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".

Also see External links below.

Also see

Books by Forest Officers are included in

• Hunting accounts online
• Scientific books online-Animals

External links

• Website of The Indian Forester journal Includes full search facility. See also Historical Books online below.
• Developments in Forestry, British India from History of India, Indianetzone
• The colonial origins of scientific forestry in Britain by Jan Oosthoek. Contains good background history of forestry service in India
• “British India’s forestry and modern environmentalism” by GN Sinha 2006. sfri.org
• Pages from History: Edward the green Balfour Madras Musings March 16-31 2010. Then an Assistant Surgeon in the Madras Medical Service, he pioneered forest conservation schemes in India after 1840.
• "Sturdy Scots and pale-faced Londoners" 06 October 2015 British Library Untold Lives blog. The examinations, academic and physical, required for appointment to the Indian Forest Service in 1880, when six were appointed. Details from British Library record IOR/L/E/6/4, File 127.
• "This Forgotten Scotsman Is The Reason Why The Anamalai Hills Are Still Lush With Trees" thebetterindia.com. Hugo Wood, District Forest Officer of Coimbatore South Division 1915-1926.

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

• Listen to the 1979 interview, with transcript 1 and transcript 2, with Florence Meiklejohn, wife of 'Mick' (W.), Indian Forestry Service Officer who tells what life was like for her accompanying him on his tours in Indian forests. 1920s-1940s. s-asian.cam.ac.uk
• "Fighting Heroes of the Intelligence Corps: Hero No. 2: Samuel Newland DSO Indian Army Intelligence Corps" by Harry Fecitt intelligencemuseum.org. Prior to WW2 Samuel Newland was member of the Burma Forest Service.
• "Forest department library to go online" by Ananya Dutta, August 19, 2013 Times of India. It is stated the digital books will become available at Maharashtra Forest Department. Currently (2020/11/07) however, the English language website does not appear to show a link to digitised books available to the public.

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

• Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal: No 9: Report on the Teak Forests of Tenasserim Provinces includes '"Summary of papers relating to the Madras and Bombay Forests" with an Index 1852 Archive.org
• The work of the Forest Department in India edited by Robert Scott Troup 1917 Archive.org
• The Forests of India by E P Stebbing Volume I 1922, Volume II 1923, Volume III 1926 Archive.org (reposted from the Digital Library of India)

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

• 100 years of Indian Forestry 1861-1961 Volume 1 by VS Rao 1961 Archive.org
• Forty Years Among The Wild Animals Of India From Mysore To The Himalayas by F C Hicks , late Dy [Deputy] Conservator, Imperial Forest Service 1910 Archive.org.

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.

• Roughing it in Southern India by Mrs M A Handley 1911 Archive.org. The author was the wife of a Forest Officer.
• Wild Animals In Central India by A A Dunbar Brander 1923. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. The author was a Conservator of Forests in the Central Provinces.
• Practical forest management : a handbook with special reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh by C G Trevor [Charles Gerald] and E A Smythies [Evelyn Arthur] 1923 Archive.org.

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..

• Forest Life In India by James W Best 1934. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.. The author was a forest officer in central India for 19 years.
• Paper No 130 "Punjab Building Timbers and Methods of Extraction" by H M Glover IFS pages 119-126b (total 18 pages including photographs) Proceedings of the Punjab Engineering Congress, Lahore, Volume 17, 1929 pecongress.org.pk. Includes brief mention of the Khyber Ropeway.
• The Empire Forestry Hand Book 1930 Includes India. Archive.org
• Forest Research In India 1935-36. The one volume also contains
  • 1936-37
  • 1937-38
  • 1937-38 Part II Provincial Reports Archive.org