Wildlife In India During The Colonial Period

Abstract

The paper throws light on how colonialism affected the wildlife of India, especially the Tiger population which was severely impacted by the policies brought out by the colonial regime. In the colonial period, mastery over nature was thought of as a part of mastery over India. With the heightened hunting of wildlife, several wild predator species were cleared out. To guard the rising livestock and agrarian base after the second half of the eighteenth century, the Brits instituted special prizes for every predator eliminated. Hunting was the standard recreation for the British official; officers even took leave to hunt. Madras, once called Puliyur (land of tigers), was divested of every tiger, as were all the cities of India. At the end of the nineteenth century, there were significantly fewer wild animals that could be hunted. Indiscriminate killing and the declining number of wildlife gave rise to the conservation of the predator species but with a reservation. Wild creatures that endangered these goals were thus systematically culled in colonial India, while those creatures vital for the orderly governance of the British colonial power were spared. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the concept of wildlife conservation gained popularity thanks to the efforts of some hunters who later became naturalists. The 1912 Wildlife Protection Act ushered in a new era of conservation. The requirements of the colonial economy and efficient governance were the main determinants of wildlife conservation. The British devised a program known as “selective conservation” whereby tigers were relentlessly exterminated due to the harm they posed to elephants, which were legally protected due to their importance to the economy and administration. The paper also demonstrates the circumstantial and utilitarian aspects of British policies and behaviour.