The causes for deforestation in India were as follows:
(i) The British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute’ sugar’ wheat and cotton because the demand for these crops increased in Europe due to increase in population. In addition to this raw materials were required for industrial production
(ii) They thought that forests were unproductive. They were considered to be wilderness that had to be brought under cultivation so that the land could yield agricultural products an revenue and enhance the income of the state. So between 1880 and 1920. cultivated area increased by 6.7 million hectares.
(iii) With the shortage of oak forests in England in the early nineteenth century trees were felled on a massive scale and vast quantities of timber was exported from India to meet the timber supply of Royal Navy.
(iv) The spread of railways too created an additional demand of timber. Wood was
required to run locomotives and sleepers for laying railway lines.
(v) Large areas of natural forests were cleared for tea, coffee and rubber plantations to meet Europe’s growing need for these commodities’