‘Forest Conservation without Conservancy’: A Study on the Strategic Aspects of the Inner Line Reserve in Colonial Assam

Introduction

Conservation of forest usually refers to the preservation and management of certain forest area with the aim to protect it from spoliation. It, however, does not entail complete non-usage of natural resources, rather it implies utilisation of resources in an efficient and sustainable manner. Conservation is an integral part of ‘Scientific Forestry’, the eighteenth-century German concept that emphasised on utilising and repairing forests and its resources to meet human benefits and generate sustained economic yield from forests. ¹ The concept was borrowed by the British government in India as a device to expand colonial supremacy over Indian forests. It was implemented in India for the first time in the early nineteenth century when, with increasing demand for teak to meet the naval requirements of Britain, teak forests in Malabar were conserved under Captain Watson in 1806. ² After almost fifty years, this policy received legitimacy when in 1855 Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General of India issued the ‘Charter of the Indian Forests’ sketching the map of forest conservation in the country. In 1864, an organised Forest Department was established in India with Sir Dietrich Brandis as the first Inspector General of Forests. The process was accompanied by enactment of forest laws, exploration of forest resources and demarcation of forest reserves. The Indian Forest Act of 1865, the first forest legislation in India, demarcated timber species with commercial significance and imposed restrictions on their public uses. Trees fulfilling the demands of railways were earmarked for reservation. Thus, the first step to consolidate colonial control over Indian forests was established. ³ At the same time, it secured for the British the legal right to use the forest resources by curtailing indigenous usage rights over the same. Forest departments were established in various parts of the country, and promulgation of forest laws such as the acts of 1878 and 1927 boosted the phenomenon. Assam was the last region in India to have a Forest Department of its own in 1868. ⁴

Forest administration in Assam was determined by certain features. Till 1868, the forests of the province that included the whole of present-day North-East India except the princely kingdoms of Manipur and Tripura were administered as part of Bengal Forest Department. Assam during this period also included the Surma valley districts of Cachar and Sylhet. Politically, Assam was detached from Bengal only in 1874 when it was declared as a Chief Commissioner’s province. Since then, the adjoining hills surrounding the region were incorporated within Assam as districts with Khasi Hills in 1874, Naga Hills in 1881, Lushai Hills in 1898 and North East Frontier Tract in 1912. This flexible geographical restructuring of Assam’s territorial boundaries continued until 1912 when it was declared as a separate province. ⁵ The huge province of Assam was thus not only a mosaic of varied geographical and ecological boundaries, it was also a conglomeration of diverse communities, cultures and ethnic groups residing in different parts of the region. Considering these diversities within the province, the forest administration imposed over the region was also non-uniform in character with direct administration of the Department over the plains forests and indirect control over hill forests through Political Officers, Superintendents and indigenous chiefs.

Forest conservation in Assam was implemented under various pretexts. In the hill areas, shifting cultivation practised by the tribes and supposed environmental degradation were cited as factors requiring forest preservation while in the plains indiscriminate timber felling by indigenous timber traders, intrusion of agriculturists over forests and occupation of forests by colonial enterprises such as Revenue and Public Works Departments, etc were referred as potent reasons. In Assam, the Forest Department also preferred to reserve forests as a measure to protect them from being used up as tea plantations under the Wasteland Grants of the British government. ⁶ These justifications for forest conservation in the region were more or less similar to the rationale forwarded by the colonial authorities in other parts of India. Such as in the Thana district of western India, the combined interests of the Revenue Department to expand agriculture over forests, interests of the indigenous villagers, town merchants and village landlords over the natural resources of the region were held responsible for the implementation of forest conservancy in the area. ⁷ In the hilly regions, climatic degradation caused by shifting cultivation and supposed indigenous mismanagement of natural resources were some common reasons used by the colonial authorities to bring the indigenous forests under conservation plans. ⁸ These outward pleas to control indigenous forests strengthened colonial supremacy over Assam forests as in other parts of the country.

However, in Assam the application and implementation of colonial forest conservation had a different connotation. Here, forest conservation not only served the economic needs of the British Empire but catered to the political and strategic requirements of the colonial state too. Since the territory had geographical and demographical diversities, forest conservation in the province was used on strategic and political grounds also. Instance of forest conservation on such ground could be found in the reservation of 509 sq. kilometres of forest area between the Cachar district of Assam and Lushai Hills in 1878. It was expected that such a measure would protect the people of both the plains and the hills. It was named the Inner Line Forest Reserve as it fulfilled the purposes of the Inner Line Regulation of 1873 that emphasised on segregating the hills and the plains as safeguard to dwellers of both the regions.

Study Area

The study area of the article concentrates on the history behind the creation of the Inner Line Forest Reserve situated on the confluence of the present North East Indian states of Assam, Mizoram and Manipur. The area was reserved to act as a cushion to the tea plantations located in the Cachar district of Assam from Lushai raids and inroads. Lushai Hills, presently known as Mizoram, is a landlocked territory located in the north-eastern tip of India that shares international boundaries with Bangladesh and Burma and is surrounded by the Indian states of Tripura, Manipur and the Cachar district of Assam. Earlier it was known as Lushai Hills as the region was inhabited by the Lushai tribes. ‘Lushai’ is an umbrella term that included a number of subgroups within the tribe. ⁹ It denoted the head-hunting culture amongst them, where ‘lu’ referred to head and ‘shai’ denoted to cut. ¹⁰ It also perhaps hinted towards the raiding habits among the Lushais where the triumphant parties often returned with heads of their enemies as trophies. ¹¹ After Indian independence, the term ‘Lushai’ was replaced by ‘Mizo’, which denoted hill people, and their place of habitation came to be known as ‘Mizoram’.

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Figure 1.

Source: Islam, Choudhury and Bhattacharjee, Survey and Census of Hoolock Gibbon, 170–179.

Objectives and Methodology

The article is an attempt to emphasise the instance of forest conservation in Assam where it served the political and strategic requirements of the colonial state. It underlines how forest conservation was used as a part of British political policy in colonial Assam towards the hill tribes of the region. Along with colonial policies of non-interference, isolation or active intervention towards the hill tribes of Assam, conservation of forests was also used as underpinning of the Inner Line Regulation that was implemented to create a barrier between the hills and the plains as protection to dwellers of both the regions. The Inner Line Forest Reserve created in 1878 between the districts of Lushai Hills and Cachar in Assam is an instance of this. The article also highlights how the colonial state could use forest conservation for strategic purposes depending on the exigencies of circumstances. This application of forest conservation was different from the revenue-oriented conservation plans undertaken in other parts of the region. The article is based on the scholarly works by British officials, colonial administration and forest reports, anthropological researches, secondary literature, newspaper reports, gazetteers and academic articles in journals.

Historical Background of the Inner Line Regulation in British Assam

After Assam was incorporated within British India in 1826, the region appeared to the colonial administrators as a landmass without recognised socio-geographical identity surrounded by hill tribes with vague ethnic affinity. The frontier tribes bordering Assam plains functioned as independent chieftainships and exercised authority on the people and the area under their jurisdiction. Raids were integral to tribal culture and were usually expressions of exercise of power over either some areas or group of people in the form of violent attacks, plunder, extraction of surplus, kidnapping or murder of the identified enemy. This was a common phenomenon among the hill tribes of North-eastern India since the pre-colonial times, and the Ahom rulers adopted several mechanisms to check tribal raids. Such occurrences not only horrified the victims but often led to their large-scale exodus to other areas. The Ahom administration experienced such instances, and since the victims were often either Pykes ¹⁹ or officials under the government, such occurrences hampered the functioning of the administration. ²⁰ Hence, the Ahom king Pratap Singha (1603–1641) came up with the system of Posa under which villages situated in the frontier between the plains and the hills paid certain commodities to the hill tribes in return for which the latter stayed away from raiding the plains. ²¹ He also adopted other ways to tackle the border tribes of Assam, and this led him to enter into agreements with the Naga chiefs at the frontiers of the region. He established weekly markets in the border areas of Naga Hills and Assam to facilitate trade and commerce in the region and promote harmonious relationship between the plains and the hills. ²² Some hill Nagas earned their livelihood from manufacturing salt and by selling them in the markets situated in the Ahom territory and in return procured their basic requirements and foodstuff from there. ²³ Some of them even paid tributes to the Ahoms. ²⁴ Some tribes were provided ranks in the Ahom army also. ²⁵ The Ahom kings organised fairs in which tribesmen from adjoining hills including the North East Frontier participated. ²⁶ Such endeavours to engage the hill tribes could maintain peace in the frontier areas until the early eighteenth century. But by the mid eighteenth century with the beginning of internal intrigues, conspiracies and assassinations within the Ahom administration and attack of the Burmese on the Ahom kingdom, royal policies towards the tribes became loose that led to recurrence of tribal raids on the frontiers situated between the hills and the plains. ²⁷

By 1838, when entire Assam was formally brought under colonial administration after Upper Assam was made a British protectorate under the Ahom king, Purandhar Singha (1818–19, 1833–38) in 1833, handling tribal raids in the frontier areas appeared difficult for the British. They observed that the system of Posa that was once an amiable solution to the problem of tribal inroads had actually become an important cause for tribal raids in the region. The hill tribes started demanding Posa and cases of its non-payment were often retaliated by however, tribal onslaughts in the plains. ²⁸ To minimise the frictions, the British government modified the existing system under which the tribes collected the commodities or cash directly from the government and not from the tribes residing in the plains. ²⁹ Despite such arrangements, however, tribal raids in the frontier continued. One of the most important reasons for such occurrences during the colonial regime was the commercial propensity of the British government to explore areas with natural resources in the region with consequent imposition of control over them. The discovery of Indian rubber in Assam by Sir William Roxburgh of Calcutta Botanical Garden in 1810 was one such instance. The discovery led to further research on the natural product, and in 1838 a note on Assam rubber was prepared by Sir William Griffith that mentioned rubber forests in the region located mostly in the northern peripheries of the territory were beyond the political control of the government. By 1848, the government through its administrative manoeuvres established control over the rubber forests by leasing and converting them as Mahals. ³⁰ The leasing of these areas provided unhindered movement of outsiders to the region previously not accessed by them. Consequently, the districts of Darrang and Lakhimpur of Assam situated on the border soon emerged as merchandise hubs in the region where tribes such as Akas, Miris and Daflas sold indigenous rubber to the plains customers and were frequented by colonial agents, Mahaldars and speculators. ³¹ The uninterrupted access of foreigners to these areas produced grievances in the minds of the tribes that culminated in tribal attacks like the offensive launched by the Akas and abduction of a forest ranger and clerk in the second half of the nineteenth century. ³² The constant threat of tribal incursions and consequent hills-plains conflicts provided a logic behind the promulgation of and the necessity for continuing with the Inner Line Regulation.

The discovery of tea plants in Assam in the early nineteenth century developed a tendency among the tea planters to bring more areas under tea plantation in the region. This often led to encroachment over tribal lands with consequent clashes with the tribes whose areas were interfered with. In January 1843, the Singphos of the North East Frontier rose against the British as they captured the Singpho territory for expansion of tea gardens. ³³ In 1855, the growth of tea gardens in the southern periphery of Cachar brought the tea authorities into conflict with the Lushais who became sceptical about colonial intentions of encroachment in their areas. ³⁴ The clashes between the tribes and the British government not only threatened the security of the tea gardens but it also deteriorated mutual relations between the British and the tribes in the region. Such occurrences prompted the British to come up with a solution that culminated in the framing of Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation on 1873. ³⁵ The Regulation did not bring about a total stop to clashes between the hill tribes and the British as the 1880 Naga attack on the Baladhan Tea Estate and the execution of its manager Blyth and burning down of the Tea factory along with sixteen coolies at Cachar showed. However, the Regulation could minimize such occurrences to some extent. ³⁶

In parts of Assam, the non-tribal population residing in the plains encroached into tribal populated hill areas, resulting in mutual frictions and conflicts. For instance, the Garo-inhabited area that was neighboured by the Goalpara zamindari ³⁷ of Assam was frequently interfered with by the Goalpara zamindars. In the pre-colonial era, Goalpara zamindaries of Bijni, Mechpara, Kallumallupara and Karaibari bordered the Garo-inhabited areas. ³⁸ After the region passed under the Mughals from the Koch kings, some local magnates known as Choudhurys started exercising authority over the area and collected natural resources such as elephants, cotton and agar wood in order to pay revenue to the Mughal Faujdar stationed at Rangamati. ³⁹ In the course of time, the local magnates of Goalpara who styled themselves as zamindars started exercising dominance over the Garos and levied house tax on them by converting them into tenants in their own lands. This led to chronic rivalry between the Garos and the zamindars that was reflected in Garo raids in the plains or tax gathering forays by the zamindars in the hills. ⁴⁰ Such incidents continued well into the colonial era demanding British intervention for administrative segregation of the hills and the plains.

The Inner Line Regulation was enforced strictly till 1895 when A. Porteous, Political Officer of North Lushai Hills, proposed that it should be allowed to fall into disuse as it affected the free departure and entrance of people from the districts of Cachar and Sylhet into the Lushai Hills. When both the Deputy Commissioners of Cachar and Sylhet raised no objections, the Chief Commissioner of Assam allowed the Inner Line to fall into disuse. By the first half of the twentieth century, non-tribal intrusion into tribal territories became a matter of concern for the colonial administration in Assam. During this period, non-tribal encroachment in the hill areas became prominent either as traders, graziers or as British administrative personnel. This caught the attention of W. A. Cossgrave, the Chief Secretary to the government of Assam between 1930 and 1933 who took up the issue with the Foreign Secretary of the government of India and proposed to bring those areas hitherto not demarcated under the provisions of the Inner Line Regulation to avoid further incursions. Cossgrave suggested that the Bengali shopkeepers, if allowed to enter Lushai Hills, would indulge in illicit trade in drugs, ammunitions and women, etc and hence some control over their movement in the area was required. He also observed that the access of the Nepali graziers should also be prohibited in Lushai Hills. Under these circumstances, he suggested that the Bengal Frontier Regulation of 1873 should be extended to Lushai Hills, and ingress of foreigners in the territory should be brought under scrutiny. ⁴¹

Creation of Excluded Zones: Implementation of Inner Line Regulation

After investigating the factors that contributed to enmity between the hills and the plains, the British government decided to introduce a special plan for the administration of frontier areas. It realised that dependence of the tribes on plainsmen, zamindars and British officials should be minimized. It also emphasised on the necessity to protect the tribal areas from speculators in natural resources such as rubber and also in tea plantations. The constant intrusion of outsiders into the tribal territories on various pretexts created serious threats in the minds of the tribes about their independence and about being socially and economically exploited. ⁴² These led to regular conflicts between the hills and the plains. Tribal inroads in the plains were thus an assertion of tribal insecurity and resistance rather than expression of authority as was the case under the Ahoms. In the context of Kuki raids over neighbouring plains, Jangkhomang Guite has observed that Kuki raids in the colonial period were expressions of hill politics and a form of resistance towards extension of colonial boundaries over tribal territories with consequent threat to their independent state evading population. ⁴³

Hence, the British government in India thought of demarcating a line between the hills and the plains areas of Assam. Accordingly, a draft regulation was submitted by the government of Bengal with sanction of the government of India known as the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation I of 1873 under the Act of 1870 that was implemented with effect from 1 November 1873. The Regulation provided for the demarcation of Inner Line in the areas where the Act of 1870 was extended. It provided that any British subject for crossing the line should possess a pass issued by the district authority. ⁴⁴ The Secretary of State for India in Council declared the provisions of Act XXXIII Victoria Chapter 3 Section I of the act to be applicable in the districts of Kamrup, Darrang, Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, Garo Hills, Khasi and Jaintia Hills, Naga Hills, Cachar and Chittagong Hills. Under the Act, the local government by notification in the Calcutta Gazette prohibited British subjects or any other non-indigenous person to enter these districts without a pass under the seal of the Executive Officer. ⁴⁵ If any British subject goes beyond the Inner Line or a holder of such pass breach any of the provisions of the Regulation, the person shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ₹100 for the first offence, not exceeding ₹500 for the next and rigorous imprisonment of three months or both for each successive offences. ⁴⁶

The Inner Line Regulation laid down a number of provisions for the preservation of natural resources in the areas beyond the line. In case, any person other than a local was found to possess natural resources such as rubber, wax, ivory or any other jungle product in the area, he would be considered to violate the rules of the regulation, and his possessions would be confiscated. Beyond this proposed line, the jurisdiction of British courts would not be implemented and the tribes would be left to manage their own affairs with only interference of the frontier officers in their administrative capacities. The tea planters were restricted to acquire any land grant beyond this line or under a tenure derived directly from any chief or tribe. ⁴⁷ The Regulation also prescribed that no British subject or persons of non-indigenous origin should cherish interests in the land or in its products without the sanction of the local government. ⁴⁸ The Regulation further prescribed preservation of elephant and authorised the government to come up with rules for its capture. ⁴⁹ No person can capture or kill a wild elephant without the written permission of the officer authorised by the local government. Any breach of these provisions shall be penalised with a fine not exceeding ₹200 for each elephant killed or captured that would be later confiscated by the government. ⁵⁰ The government also suggested restrictions on expansion of tea plantations in the tribal areas with regulations on the transfer of lands in the areas beyond the Inner Line. ⁵¹

On 20 August 1875, the provisions of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation I of 1873 were extended to the southern frontier of Cachar in Assam. The Inner Line Regulation prohibited British subjects from going beyond the line without a pass with the seal of the Deputy Commissioner. ⁵² However, no pass was needed to enter Lushai Hills from Cachar. ⁵³ Therefore, the colonial authorities held that a boundary line should be enacted between the tea-producing districts of Assam and the tribal areas situated on the borders of British jurisdiction. The urgency to implement such a line in the Cachar-Lushai border was considered necessary by the British government viewing the complications that appeared in the operation of rubber (caoutchouc) in the Lakhimpur district of Assam when speculators appeared on the scene and not only interfered with the revenue derived from rubber forests situated beyond the line of settled Mahals, but also interfered in the areas occupied by the hill tribes. ⁵⁴ The areas of North East Frontier declared as beyond political control were brought under the purview of Inner Line Regulation where no resident from Assam or any other person could cross without the pass. The purpose of such implementation was to shield these areas from external encroachment into the rubber and elephant forests and to stop access of poachers, moneylenders, woodcutters and traders in the region. ⁵⁵ In some areas, the Inner Line was reinforced by establishment of border police posts. This was the situation in Naga Hills where C. S. Elliott, the Chief Commissioner of Assam in 1881, suggested for the installation of 45 posts in the frontier areas supported by 20 head constables and 20 constables to tackle the wandering and raiding habits of the Nagas in the neighbouring areas. ⁵⁶

By the turn of the twentieth century, the logic behind implementation of Inner Line Regulation in the frontier areas of Assam began to change when non-tribal ingression in tribal areas appeared as a greater problem to the colonial administration than its previous pretext of tribal raids in the plains. Accordingly, in 1895 under the orders of Sir William Wade, the Chief Commissioner of Assam, and in consultation with the Political Officer of North Lushai Hills, Inner Line Regulation in Cachar was abandoned. Rather the government considered implementation of the regulation in Lushai Hills with greater importance to stop the problem of migration of foreigners. ⁵⁷ The issue engaged the attention of the Simon Commission that presented as report on the condition of hills tribes in Assam and the necessity to bring them under the purview of the Inner Line Regulation. Lushai Hills was suggested to be brought under the regulation. By the 1930s, the colonial urge to protect the tea gardens of Cachar from Lushai attacks was replaced by anxiety to safeguard the Lushai region from migration of outsiders. Hence, the government of Assam urged the government of India for the implementation of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (V of 1873) over Lushai Hills. It suggested that the northern boundary of the district should be brought under the regulation. ⁵⁸

Establishment of the Inner Line Reserve: A Strategy of Political Administration

Lushai connection with the British can be traced since the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when the colonial rulers acquired supremacy over Bengal with consequent control over Cachar and Chittagong. Establishment of dominance over these areas brought them into contact with neighbouring Lushai Hills. The tribes residing there preferred to shut themselves from external influences and abhorred encroachment in any form over their territories. The entire region was a collection of chieftainships where each village was an independent unit. The chiefs raided each other’s territories as demonstration of supremacy and also carried out inroads in to neighbouring areas to capture salt springs, acquire suitable plots for jhum cultivation, to exercise superiority over other tribal communities and plainsmen. Outsiders accessing their terrain had to pay royalty to the Lushai chief of the respective area as a measure of protection. The first conflict of the British with the Lushais took place in 1826 when a party of Sylhet woodcutters who entered the Lushai territory were massacred by them on the pretext of their failure to pay the protection royalty to the chief of the area where they intended to cut wood. The matter was viewed seriously by the District Magistrate of Sylhet district who sent two officials to the venue of the incident for further enquiries. The Lushai chief detained the officials and demanded ransom from them. The British government handled the situation intelligently by both paying the ransom and imposing blockade on the markets on which the Lushais depended for their necessities and trade relations. ⁵⁹ This compelled the Lushais to come to a compromise and be dependent on the British who utilised the situation to their expediency. The initiation of British contact with the Lushais was followed by agreements between the colonial government and the Lushai chiefs that emphasised on security of traders and wood cutters accessing the Lushai region as a responsibility of the chiefs. ⁶⁰ The British offered the chiefs an annual sum of rupees six hundred in return for which they were asked to maintain peace at the frontier. The arrangement seemed to work successfully until the British decided to expand tea gardens to the south of Cachar bordering Lushai Hills. This led to contraction in forest areas between Cachar and Lushai Hills, making the Lushais sceptical about colonial ambitions to encroach over their jungles and hunting grounds. The Lushai chief Vanpuilala sent messages to the British complaining about colonial expansion of tea gardens towards the Lushai territory. The British authorities, unsuccessful in understanding the predicament of the chiefs conveyed them that expansion of tea gardens towards the southern frontiers would bring them good instead of harm. ⁶¹ The chiefs resented the policy of the British towards them and began to suspect colonial intentions. They decided to unite themselves and carry out concerted actions against British expansion towards their region. It was reflected in the murder of a tea planter named James Winchester at Alexendrapore tea garden in Cachar and kidnap of his daughter Mary Winchester by the Lushais in 1871. The matter attracted the attention of the colonial government and the Governor General in Council decided to send punitive expedition to Lushai Hills on 11 July 1871. ⁶² This led to the submission of a number of chiefs, Mary Winchester was surrendered and the Sylhet and Cachar frontiers surrounding Lushai Hills were protected by a line of outposts. ⁶³ By 1889–1890, after the Chin-Lushai expedition, the whole of the Lushai area was included within British India on administrative grounds. ⁶⁴ Thus, Suhas Chatterjee has aptly observed, ‘Lushai country was annexed in the interest of tea industry….’ ⁶⁵

The punitive expeditions sent by the British against the Lushais in 1871 though could bring the tribes to submission but it alarmed the colonial authorities about the security in the frontier region between Cachar and Lushai Hills. The survey party that accompanied Lushai expedition and explored the region, its forests, vegetation and people considered Lushai warfare as bush fighting that was mostly undertaken by surprise. ⁶⁶ The ferocity of Lushai raids as viewed by the British can be understood from the following statement of M.J. Wright:

Of all the tribes around us, none were as wicked and cruel as the Lushais, the inhabitants of Chin Hills. They were the dread both of the natives and the Europeans. Scarcely a year passed away without some of our soldiers stationed on the hills falling victims to the Lushais. At other times a band of these savage raiders would descend upon Cachar murdering all who opposed them, and carrying off both prisoners and plunder… ⁶⁷

The ruthless character of Lushai inroads in Cachar appeared as an ultimatum to the colonial authorities who thought to tackle the matter differently, apart from military handling of the situation. Hence, the government decided to create a buffer forest zone between the two districts to avoid further incursions. It was expected that such a measure would protect the tea gardens in Sylhet and Manipur too apart from Cachar. Tea industry was the highest profit-making enterprise in the province which the colonial government wanted to protect at all costs. Thus, E.A. Gait, an official of the Indian Civil Service observed, ‘The tea industry contributes at present 8.55% of the total ordinary land revenue demand of the province….’ ⁶⁸ This attests to the significance attached to tea in the colonial economy of the late nineteenth century. Therefore, maintenance of peace in the Cachar–Lushai Hills border was essential for the growth of the tea industry in the region. In 1877, the British government thought for the conversion of 509 sq. miles of forests into a reserve in the border zone between the districts as a possible measure to avert Lushai raids on Cachar tea gardens. Accordingly, a forest reserve was set up in the region between Cachar and Lushai Hills in 1878 to act as buffer between the two areas with the name as Inner Line Reserve. ⁶⁹ The Inner Line Reserve came into existence through a notification under the Indian Forest Act of 1878. ⁷⁰

Though the Inner Line Reserve was officially declared as a reserve, but stringent laws of forest conservation were not applied over it. In 1895, A.L. Home, the Conservator of Forests in Assam, observed that unrestricted felling was permitted in the Inner Line Reserve, which was established more with the purpose of protecting the plains of Cachar rather than preservation of commercially viable timber species. ⁷¹ Though stringent rules of forest conservation were not applied in the reserve but shifting cultivation was not allowed. Six villages were located within the reserve where the residents were prohibited to practise shifting agriculture that was usually performed in bamboo jungles. The residents had to obtain permission to clear bamboo jungles for cultivation from the Divisional Forest Officer of Cachar. The forests in the shared border were placed under the Cachar Forest Division. It also shared border with Manipur. Felling in the reserve was under the charge of the Divisional Forest Officer of Cachar who was authorised to issue trade permits in consultation with the Superintendent of Lushai Hills. The entire reserve was divided into blocks and assigned to timber cutters from the plains. The Divisional Forest Officer of Cachar could collect royalty on produce that entered the revenue stations. ⁷² The Inner Liner Reserve Forest had important timber species with several non-timber and animal species. The Sonai and Rukni rivers, the tributaries of River Barak, washed the banks of the forest. ⁷³

Soon after the incorporation of Lushai Hills with British India on administrative grounds, the region was divided into North Lushai Hills as part of Assam and South Lushai Hills as an unit of Bengal. North Lushai Hills was under the charge of Political Officer and South Lushai Hills was under the administration of Superintendent. In 1898, the British government decided to merge both the parts, and thus the Lushai Hills district came up as a part of Assam under the administration of the Superintendent as the representative of the Viceroy of India. The administration functioned in association with the indigenous chiefs. ⁷⁴ Accordingly, by 1898 changes came up in the forest administrative structure. By 1904, forest laws that controlled the administration of the natural landscape were notified by the Chief Commissioner of Assam. The administration of Inner Line Reserve was entrusted to the district administration of Lushai Hills. Some reserves were created in Lushai Hills on environmental grounds. Forest areas in the riverine belts were declared as reserves to curb shifting cultivation. ⁷⁵

Lushai Hills, which was assimilated on strategic grounds, experienced lesser direct colonial governance since its integration to British India. The expedition of 1871 that provided access to colonial authorities in the region was accompanied by survey parties intended to provide an idea about the region that could act as buffer between India and Burma. In this context, Sir Cecil Beadon, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal (1862–1866), observed: ‘…it therefore became a desideratum to acquire a more perfect geographical knowledge of the country that constituted the watershed between the waters of Dallesur and Barak in the north and the waters of Karnafoolee and Koladyne on the south’. ⁷⁶ The surveys gave favourable reports on the Lushais as ‘the happiest people in the world’. The tea planters who accompanied the political mission of the British government in the region in 1871 appreciated the Lushais as intelligent and matured traders. These enthusiastic opinions convinced the British about Lushai acumen as hard working and about their capability as tea cultivators. ⁷⁷ Such complimentary views perhaps excluded opinions about Lushai raiding habits that acquired importance in colonial political decisions for the region within few years and led to the creation of Inner Line reserve between Lushai Hills and Cachar on strategic grounds.

Thus, it may be assumed that the survey undertaken during that time was more administrative in nature than botanical. Until the twentieth century, scanty measures were taken to botanically explore the region except in 1901 when a botanical survey was made in South Lushai Hills by a Scottish botanist named A. T. Gage. ⁷⁸ Hence, from the inception of its administration in Lushai Hills, the colonial government barely expressed its willingness to establish agile governance over the region. This was more or less similar to the system of administration implemented in other hill districts of Assam except Khasi Hills. A policy of indirect interference through establishment of outposts at the frontier areas and functioning through indigenous chiefs under the supervision of the Political Officer was the mode of control. Application of isolation reinforced through the implementation of Inner Line Regulation further reiterated the colonial policy of minimal interference. The colonial authorities undertook some trading initiatives by establishing trade marts in the foothill areas to inculcate trade relations between the tribes and the neighbouring plains. ⁷⁹ Although Christian missionaries with the support of the colonial government significantly contributed in their proselytising endeavours in the hill areas of Assam, the latter were invested with rudimentary administrative structure of government until the twentieth century. Thus, forest management in Lushai Hills came under the district administration only by the early twentieth century when except some regulations to control timber felling and jhum prohibitory measures in reserved and unreserved forests; the administration hardly took any step to conserve the natural resources in the region. ⁸⁰

Rubber, an important minor forest produce from the region, showed deterioration during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries due to wasteful methods of rubber tapping applied by the tribes. The wreckage went unabated and increased with the outbreak of the Mautam ⁸¹ famine (1881–1882) when the indigenous chiefs earned their livelihood by selling products such as rubber and ivory at the Kassalong and Changsil bazaars in Lushai Hills. ⁸² The destruction increased even further in the subsequent years. ⁸³ J. Knoxwight, the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar in 1881, realised the necessity to check the situation. ⁸⁴ The botanists also lamented on the unscientific methods applied by the tribes to collect rubber resulting in the destruction of rubber trees. The Forest Department of Assam established in 1868 that was barely some years old then faced difficulty in handling the situation, though Gustav Mann, the Conservator of Assam forests way back in 1868–1869, suggested that either rubber tapping should be reduced to three months a year (January–March) or a regulation should be made prohibiting the tapping of forests more frequently than once in three years. ⁸⁵ Despite such concerns, the government was not in a position to demarcate the rubber-producing forests in Lushai Hills as reserved. The memories of ferocious tribal raids and reactions of the tribes towards colonial expansion of tea plantations towards Lushai borders were fresh in the minds of the British who refused to aggravate hassles by further intervention. ⁸⁶ Attempts to preserve rubber trees could be noticed in the early twentieth century when rubber plantations were established in Lushai Hills under mutual contracts between the British and the indigenous chiefs. Some Lushai youths were sent to Charduar rubber plantation in Assam to acquire knowledge and training about rubber farming and tapping. The chiefs were convinced about benefits of planting rubber, about indigenous claim over the product and the profits associated with it. ⁸⁷ The provisions of the agreements were framed in such a way that appeared more lucrative to the chiefs than to the government.

Conclusion

Thus, colonial forest conservation in Lushai Hills was dictated more by political exigencies than by economic or environmental factors. Except some forests reserved on environmental grounds in the early twentieth century, there were hardly any efforts to bring the forest areas under colonial reservation plans in the region. Even destruction of rubber trees could not induce the British to bring rubber-producing areas under conservation plans. Managing the people of the region and its associated issues played a preponderant role in the minds of the colonial authorities who tried to control the situation either militarily or through evangelical missions, and through trade relationships. Establishment of the Inner Line Forest Reserve in 1878 was one of the management mechanisms applied by the British to tackle the region and its people. This was done around twenty years before the formal incorporation of the region as a part of British Assam in 1898. Inclusion of indigenous chiefs in forest works was also a part of the process without which no endeavour of forest administration in Lushai Hills perhaps could have materialised. Such instance indicates the fluidity in colonial forest conservation plans which the British manoeuvred as per their requirements. On the other hand, it also highlights the challenges faced by the British government in the hill areas of Assam that compelled them to use forest conservation for strategic purposes.