Green Imperialism and the Paradox of Colonial Conservation: Forest Governance in Punjab (ca. 1860–1880)

Colonial forest policies in India combined conservation and exploitation, managing landscapes for protection while serving the interests of the empire. Focusing on the period from around 1860 until 1880, Punjab emerged as a key site for implementing and institutionalising these policies. This paper examines how colonial forest law and management practices reshaped Punjab’s ecological systems, highlighting the paradox of colonial conservation, where efforts to protect forests simultaneously facilitated resource extraction. The research explores how such interventions shaped customary rights, agrarian structures and social relations. The study utilises qualitative archival research, drawing on forestry reports, revenue records and administrative correspondence. The findings demonstrate that British forestry in Punjab prioritised revenue and infrastructure demands over ecological balance, transforming public lands into regulated state property and displacing local communities. The paper finds that colonial forestry in Punjab exemplifies ecological imperialism, resulting in long-term legacies of environmental degradation, social dispossession and institutionalised state control. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .