Environment & land
Canals and lakes, forests, shifting cultivation and colonial forest laws.
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Harappan civilization🏺 Ancient
Canals at Shortughai
Many Harappan sites lie in semi-arid lands where irrigation was probably needed; traces of canals survive at Shortughai in Afghanistan, but not in Punjab or Sind.
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c. second century CE🏺 Ancient
The Sudarshana lake inscription
A Sanskrit rock inscription records that the Shaka ruler Rudradaman repaired the Mauryan-era lake after a storm broke its embankments — without taxing his subjects. A later Gupta inscription on the same rock records another repair.
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Early 15th century🏰 Medieval
Kamalapuram tank and the Hiriya canal
At Vijayanagara, rainwater was stored and carried to the city: the Kamalapuram tank irrigated fields and fed the royal centre, and the Hiriya canal was among the major waterworks.
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Mughal period🏰 Medieval
Jangal and kharbandi
Outside the intensively cultivated north, huge swathes of dense forest (jangal) or scrubland (kharbandi) covered eastern, central and peninsular India.
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By 1832🏭 Modern
Damin-i-Koh: the hoe and the plough
The British demarcated Damin-i-Koh as the land of the Santhals, who cleared forests for plough agriculture; the Paharias, who used the hoe for shifting cultivation, retreated deeper into the Rajmahal hills.
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Nineteenth century🏭 Modern
Jhum cultivation
Many tribal communities practised jhum (shifting) cultivation on small forest patches, cutting treetops and burning vegetation to clear the land.
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Colonial period🏭 Modern
Reserved Forests
The British declared forests state property; in Reserved Forests people could no longer move freely, practise jhum, gather fruit or hunt.
How we check: each entry is written from a passage in the NCERT chapter it links to, and our build fails unless key phrases from that passage are found in the chapter’s own text. Dates appear only where the chapter gives them.