Garhwal was divided in two; the eastern portion directly under British control and the western part became a princely State known as Tehri Garhwal. With the British, came the industrial revolution to India. The British quickly found that the chir-pines in the lower elevations would not be suitable for the much needed railway sleepers, so they turned their gaze upwards into the higher elevations of the mountains. Here they found the deodar tree. These trees provided the British occupants with an excellent wood that was well suited for railway sleepers. Unfortunately this tree is very slow growing and quite difficult to propagate. As India's transportation networks expanded and the natural resources located in the Himalayas proved to be financially rewarding for outside settlers, new locations and methods were now needed to meet the timber requirements of these pressures. A new technique of floating timber down the Ganges had allowed axe men to travel deep into previously untouched locations to meet the railways needs. With the expansion of the rail and roadway systems deeper into the Himalayas, and with no real legislation to stand in their way, entrepreneurs were now wiping out entire forests to meet the demand of the needs of import into Britain as well as the needs of the railway and population expansion in India. .
In order to comprehend how these actions directly affected the native people living there, it is important to fully understand the role of the forests in supplying the local population's daily physical and spiritual needs. You must also understand the ecological and social systems that were well entrenched at local levels to ensure for not only the survival of these forests, but methods that ensured these forests were as healthy and productive as possible. .
The native people of the Himalayas have long understood the importance of utilizing balanced and ecologically friendly habits in practices that affected their natural surroundings and their dependency was well institutionalized into culture and society thru traditions that dated back centuries.
In India, the most visible advocate of ecofeminism is Vandana Shiva. One would tend to categorize her work with the eco-feminists of the radical mode, Vandana Shiva (1988) critiques modern science and technology as a western, patriarchal and colonial project, which is inherently violent and perpetua...