causes of deforestation during colonial period

In the colonial period, cultivation expanded rapidly for a variety of reasons. First, the British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat and cotton. The demand for these crops increased in nineteenth-century europe where foodgrains were needed to feed the growing urban population and raw materials were required for industrial production. Second in the early nineteenth century, the colonial state thought that forests were unproductive. They were considered to be wilderness that had to be brought under cultivation so that the land could yield agricultural products and revenue, and enhance the income of the state. Third by the early nineteenth century, oak forests in England were disappearing. This created a problem of timber supply for the Royal Navy. Fourth the spread of railways from the 1850s created a new demand.