The Cochin Forest Steam Tramway was a railway innovation to commodify forests and exploit timber for the British colonial empire.”
- Sebastian Joseph, 2016
The Cochin Forest Steam Tramway was a railway innovation to commodify forests and exploit timber for the British colonial empire.”
- Sebastian Joseph, 2016
Rail and Tree: The Story of the Cochin Forest Steam Tramway
The process of British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent included exploitation of natural resources of the Western Ghats. Empire building needed timber for industries, and acquiring natural resources required controlling forest use and access. Timber for colonial railways and shipbuilding needed undisturbed growth to reach required heights for felling. The colonial methods of timber management included reserved forests and plantations, facilitating transport and preventing smuggling and competition, in effect creating a timber monopoly.
Controlling the forests
By the late 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, uncontrolled felling reduced yield of timber from accessible forests, while large areas lay untapped in the interior. With forest-dwelling communities inhabiting parts of the forest, the British formulated policies to exploit the forest in systematic ways.
Midway through the century, in 1865, the first Indian Forest Act was passed. More transformative was the marking of forests into reserved and unreserved areas, and listing of reserved trees to establish control by declaring forest areas as State forests. The Act also declared that forest use by the local villagers was not a right but a privilege.
The demand for timber for railway sleepers for the vast growing rail network, more than 80,000 km laid between 1853 and 1910, threatened the forest ecology of the subcontinent. By the early 20th century, surveyors methodically documented the biodiversity of the subcontinent, identifying trees, medicinal plants, and communities dependent and their settlement patterns. At the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, the data was examined, to arrive at specific qualities of each tree and to determine the utility of the tree species for the colonial forestry requirement.
Timeline of Early Colonial Forest Policy
Timber resources of Cochin
The forest policies of the British applied to the Cochin state as it entered into a subsidiary alliance with the British under the Madras government. During 1800–95, the British government established the Forest Department, intending to monopolise valuable timber. Other forest reforms emerged from the protracted efforts and correspondence between Raja Rama Varma, Cochin’s monarch, and the British government. Fascinated by the departmental system of the British, the Raja had frequent meetings with the British Conservators of Cochin forests to change the forest administration of Cochin. One of the major issues discussed was the smuggling of timber into Thrissur and Ollur, which were adjacent to British areas. This action deprived Cochin of its revenue and also led to the loss of vast areas of forests. These incidents stressed the need for adequate facilities to transport timber safely from Cochin forests.
Timeline of the Cochin Forest Steam Tramway
Plan for a Tramway
The common method for transporting timber used elephants, which became obsolete due to the inability of elephants to drag the logs to the depots. The initial suggestion proposed in the durbar was to open cart roads through the forests to facilitate continuous supply. During this time, J.C. Kohlohoff recommended the construction of a tramway to explore the virgin forests of Parambikulam.
The timber from other forests was floated down to the depots through the river, which opened the possibility of utilising the Chalakudy River as a transportation channel. Robert E. Haffield was appointed in 1900 to survey and report the possibilities of this proposition. The report discovered that the higher ends of the river were full of hurdles and a land route with suitable transportation would tap a longer and richer forest region year-round. This proposal led to the establishment of the Forest Tramway.
Building the Tramway
The tramway was designed to work the virgin forests of Parambikulam and Orukomban. It covered a distance of 83.20 km from its starting point, Chalakudy. The work began in 1901 and was completed in 1907. The main block of the forests worked by the tramline was the Parambikulam area, located in the eastern regions of the state forests. Although the tramway was intended to serve the Forest Department, private traffic was also allowed as the tramway transported fuel, canes, reeds, and sleepers extracted by private contractors.
The rolling stock of the forest tramway consisted only of open bogie trucks designed for carrying timber swivelled bolsters and chilled cast iron wheels, with a carrying capacity of 12 tonnes. All the sections had steam engines alongside 70 open wagons and 2 bogies. It was designed uniquely with deep inclines, zigzag lines, brake houses, and turn plates, totalling 49.5 miles.
Madakkuvazhikal
A unique technical feature that began from the mountainous second section of the tramway system was the zigzag curves through which the tramway ascended and descended the mountains. For a short distance (corresponding to the middle leg of the letter “Z”), the direction of travel is reversed, before the original direction is resumed. Ideal for climbing steep gradients with no need to make tunnels and heavy earthworks, the switchback or Zig Zag tracks were called Madakkuvazhikal by workers, refering to ‘three points climb up’ and ‘two points climb down’. These movements took the train up and down the mountain side which helped with the transportation of timber.
Staff
The Tramway staff consisted of Permanent Way Inspectors, Loco Foreman, Drivers, Strikers, Traffic Inspectors, Guards, and Brake Coolies in addition to the administrative staff. Tribals like Kadars and Malayars were employed as watchers and coolies in the tramway service. Hence, the tribal population was exploited as accomplices in extracting forest wealth.
The Tramway Department established a full-fledged workshop at Chalakudy to produce spare parts and maintain the system after the tramway was commissioned in 1907.
Timber for War
India was the only supplier of timber to the Middle East and the allied forces in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Cochin, during both world wars. Quick supply of the needed
timber implied the direct involvement of the Cochin State. Private companies were licensed, leading to severe destruction of evergreen forests in Vazhachal and Peringal.
The Cochin Forest Department worked as a liaison between the Timber Supply Circle of Madras and the Timber Directorate of Delhi. This led to the allocation of extra funds for the Tramway. Moving timber along the tramway made it a profitable concern for the British during the Second World War. So, the strategic value of Indian timber necessitated the destruction of the forests of the Cochin state.
Timber and Shipbuilding
The government opened up roads into forests untapped by the Forest Department, supplying timber for other ventures related to the war, including shipbuilding. Thus, the strategic value of Indian forests, which was evident in the building of the railway network, was forcefully highlighted during the world wars with the emergence of the shipbuilding industry. The shipbuilding industry revived due to the continuous supply and availability of sufficient timber and trained labour brought to the notice of the War Department. The South Indian Corporation built many ships for the British Navy using the supply of timber from Cochin.
Ecological Destruction
Catering to the exigencies of the imperialists and the absence of proper planning for extracting timber led to massive destruction of forests in Cochin State. Many private agencies were found supplying larger quantities of timber to the British. In addition, large areas of forests were leased out to private European landowners to start plantations.
As Cochin State was concerned with revenue generation, the tramway was connected with railway stations to exploit forests untouched by the tramway. This decision resulted in the excessive felling of trees in the Parambikulam area, leading the Conservator of Forests to call the tramway ‘a necessary evil’, till all the timber of the Parambikulam forest was obtained.
Backlash and Resistance
On the other hand, the anticipations of additional revenue through the CFST failed, a circumstance that led to severe backlash from the Cochin Legislative Council and public leaders. The Finance Committee was agitated over the illegal felling and timber smuggling into British Malabar and the continuation of the tramway. The Council moved several motions to reduce funds for the Forest Department and the tramway. C.A. Ouseph, the elected member from Chalakudy, attacked the colonial forest policies and questioned the prolonged working of the tramway after deviating from its original plan.
Despite this backlash, neither was the tramway discontinued by the Cochin State nor were funds for the same reduced. The major reason behind this leniency was the fact that the tramway was profitable for the British.
Legacy of the Tramway
The tramway continued to function in Cochin even after Independence. With the formation of the state of Kerala, the relevance of the system was questioned and debated between the tramway staff and the Forest Department. Based on the Conservator of Forests Report 1951, it was decided to discontinue the tramway in 1963.
The construction of the tramway can be considered an engineering marvel for its infrastructural brilliance, and its creative utilisation of Kerala’s unique topography to promote trade and industrial interests of the colonial power. It is an example of the techno-ecological imperialism practised by the British to promote their commercial interests. However, this colonial innovation had a detrimental effect on Cochin’s natural resources, as it led to a huge loss of forest cover as a consequence.
