is cut punishments were prescribed for such acts. The Kautalya's Arthashastra written in the Mauryan Period, says about the need of forest administration. It also says how a forest is important for a successful kingdom. Forestry in Colonial system In 1840, the British colonial administration promulgated an ordinance called Crown Land (Encroachment) Ordinance. This ordinance targeted forests in Britain's Asian colonies, and vested all forests, wastes, unoccupied and uncultivated lands to the crown. The Imperial Forest Department was established in India in 1864. The British state monopoly over Indian forests was first asserted through the Indian Forest Act of 1865. This law simply established the government's claims over forests. The British colonial administration then enacted a further far-reaching Forest Act of 1878, thereby acquiring the sovereignty of all wastelands which in its definition included all forests. This Act also enabled the administration to demarcate reserved and protected forests. In the former, all local rights were abolished while in the latter some existing rights were accepted as a privilege offered by the British government to the local people which can be taken away if necessary. These colonial laws brought the forests under the centralised sovereignty of the state. Sir Dietrich Brandis, the Inspector General of Forests in India from 1864 to 1883, is regarded as the father not only of scientific forestry in India, but as the "father of tropical forestry." An FAO report claims it was believed in colonial times that the forest is a national resource which should be utilised for the interests of the government. Like coal and gold mines, it was believed that forests belonged to the state for exploitation. Forest areas became a source of revenue. For example, teak was extensively exploited by the British colonial government for ship construction, sal and pine in India for railway sleepers and so on. Forest contracts, such as that of biri pata (leaves of Diospyros melanoxylon), earned so much revenue that it was often used by the people involved in this business as a leverage for political power. These contracts also created forest zamindars (government recognised forest landowners).The government gave out these contracts without any restrictions in regard to conservation and these contractors began cutting trees indiscriminately as a result forest around train tracks disappeared. The British agenda regarding forest in India displaced the locals and natives of India who had ideas in cognizance with coexisting with the forest