DEVELOPMENT AND DEFORESTATION

Based upon an in-depth empirical research, Development and Deforestation: Making of Urban Bombay studies the green dense in scaling the urbanization of Bombay in the nineteenth century. In particular, the book traces the principal consequences of the political intervention of the British in reshaping the ecological landscape of western India. In metamorphosing political intervention into the colonial control, the British botanists, conservators and military engineers undertook scores of forest surveys. Most significantly, timber trade dynamics were constructively utilized, which, regrettably resulted in a massive deforestation of western India. Such correlations between timbered commodity and urbanization, leading to subsequent deforestation are understudied. 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.