Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the sustained exploitation of the forests of Nepal Terai during and after WWI to meet Indian railway companies' demands for sleepers. I will demonstrate how the imperial interests of the British Raj and Nepali government under the Ranas intersected in the jungles of Terai.

Paper long abstract:

The supply of railway sleepers to British Indian Railway Companies dwindled during the WWI. There was a heavy demand for broad-gauge sleepers overseas because of the war which resulted in a severe shortage of sleepers for railways in India. Consequently, the Railway Board approached the Nepal durbar expressing interest in the extraction of sleepers from the “excellent sal forests” in the Sarda valley. Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher was more than willing to help the Raj and Nepal was already helping the imperial war effort by sending young Nepali men to fight for the empire. Generously, Chandra made an offer, free of royalty, of up to two hundred thousand sleepers from the Sarda Valley. Chandra presented this offer as Nepal’s contribution toward the prosecution of the great war with hope and prayers for the final success of the British forces. The extraction of sleepers from Nepali forests, at a royalty, continued throughout the 1920s under the supervision of an Indian Forestry Conservator. Here was an instance of the confluence of political and economic interests of the Nepali Rana rulers and the British Indian government in the extraction of forests of Nepal Terai. In this paper, I will discuss the integration of Nepali to the larger political economy of British Raj in South Asia and the ecological consequences of it. My focus on the sal forests of Nepal Terai and their sustained extraction will also highlight ecological imperialist projects of the Nepali state that saw the Terai as its internal colony.