Development and Deforestation

This book underscores the colonial psyche in articulating conservation policies and uncovers strategies that have been overlooked in the literature on the Environmental history of the Bombay Presidency. Drawing on rich archival sources and some significant secondary literature, this book traces the history of citified infrastructural developments in building warships, houses, bungalows, public buildings, railways and in the manufacturing of furniture in Bombay and the Bombay Presidency that eventually triggered urbanization. Correspondingly, the subject of deforestation of western India in three distinctive phases and ensuing afforestation, which fed the needs of the empire, is also highlighted.