Question

explain any five ways in which the lives of the villagers were affected by the forest acts?

Answer 1

**Now the villagers were deprived of their customary practices like hunting, cutting, grazing their cattle, collecting fruits, etc.
**One of the major impacts was on the practice of shifting cultivations or swidden agriculture.
**People were now forced to steal wood from the forests and if they were caught, they were at the mercy of the forest guards who would take bribes from them.
**Women who collected fuel woods were especially worried.
**It was common for police, constables and forest guards to harass people by demanding free food from them.

Answer 2

The Indian Forest Act of 1927 was introduced to consolidate and reserve areas of forest cover, thriving in forest produce and wildlife. The Forest Act of 1927, enhanced the Indian Forest Act of 1878, introduced by the British.

These Acts affected the life of villagers in the following ways:

1. Land was acquired from those living in areas designated as reserve forest.

2. The right to graze animals was restricted to certain areas.

3. Right to draw water was decided by the Forest Settlement Officer.

4. The right to take forest produce from certain areas in the forests - like fruits, honey etc., was also decided by the Forest Settlement Officer.

5. Villagers are not allowed to cut down trees 

While it recognised illegal and unauthorised felling of trees and poaching of animals as punishable crimes, it often resulted in man-animal conflict.