Who was appointed the first Inspector General of Forests in British India in 1864?

Dietrich Brandis, a German forester and botanist, was appointed the first Inspector General of Forests in India in 1864.

About Dietrich Brandis:

• He was born on 31 March 1824 at Bonn, in Germany.
• He studied botany, and joined the British service in Burma in 1856, where he managed the teak forests of Pegu.
• He became the Inspector General of Forests in India in 1864, and held the post until 1883.
• He is regarded as the "father of tropical forestry".
• He was knighted for his services, and later trained foresters in Germany and Britain.
• He died on 28 May 1907.

His work in India:

• He realised that a proper system of forest management was needed, and that the forests had to be protected by law.
• He helped set up the Imperial Forest Department in 1864.
• He helped draft the Indian Forest Act of 1865, the first forest law in India.
• He introduced "scientific forestry": the forests were divided into blocks, and trees were planted in straight rows; old trees were cut and replaced in a planned way.

The later Forest Act (1878):

• It divided forests into three categories: reserved, protected and village forests.
• In reserved forests, villagers were not allowed to take anything for their own use.

NCERT on scientific forestry:

• NCERT notes that Brandis was the first Inspector General of Forests in India, and that the Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at Dehradun in 1906.
• NCERT notes that scientific forestry harmed the lives of forest communities, who lost their rights to graze cattle, collect produce and practise shifting cultivation.

Forest rebellions:

Many forest communities, such as the people of Bastar, rebelled against these restrictions.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Hugh Cleghorn was an earlier Conservator of Forests in Madras; Berthold Ribbentrop and William Schlich were later Inspectors General of Forests.