These photographs of the
construction of the Bhor Ghat railway line are attributed to Alice
Tredwell, a mid-19th Century railway contractor and photographer. She
arrived in India with her husband, Solomon Tredwell, a railway
contractor in 1859 hired to complete this section of the Great Indian
Peninsular Railway. However, Solomon died of illness soon after arrival,
leaving Alice to take up the contract by herself – which she completed
by 1863. During the process, she also meticulously photographed the
construction of the line.
The construction of this railway line took
over eight years and the human and environmental costs of the Bhor Ghat
project were tragically high. Indian labourers were made to scale steep
cliffs to reduce the incline of the mountains, without being provided
with footholds or safety equipment. Thousands would fall to their
death—one estimate puts the death toll at 24,000. By the time the
project was opened in 1863, a total of 25 tunnels had been blasted
through Bhor Ghat, leaving death and debris in their wake.
Running through forests
The building of railroads required
machinery and engines, which were imported from Britain to India in
pound sterling. But it also required plentiful raw material like
firewood, which was cheaper to source locally. A lot of wood went into
the construction of railways, starting with the tracks themselves.
Timber, sal, teak and deodar were found to be best at weathering
pressure and pests. Since teak was expensive and deodar grew only in the
Himalayas, timber and sal were most used. British survey reports of the
time estimated that India possessed timber equal to the railway demand.
According to historian Pallavi V Das, author of Railway expansion and its impact on forests in colonial India, 1853-1884,
what fuelled the rapid deforestation of the time was a belief that
India’s forests were ‘inexhaustible” and were in no danger of being
over-exploited. Huge tracts of forests were destroyed, extending from
the Western Himalayas to the Madras Presidency, and as the construction
accelerated so did the depletion. For the Madras Presidency lines, it
was estimated that each mile (1.6 km) required 1760 sleepers, which
would last about eight years. Taking periodical renewals into account,
it was estimated that every 100 miles of track would require 22,000
pieces of wood per year.
'View of the
contractors_ workshops with Mr Clowser, joint manager of contract in the
village of Oonee', c. 1859-1860, Alice Tredwell
Missing the forest for the coal
In the mid-1860s, the demand for wood in
railways saw another sharp rise and this time for use as fuel. Steam
engines needed coal, but a survey of the Subcontinent’s distribution of
coal reserves revealed limited supply in Bengal and Central India.
Importing coal from Britain was not a sustainable option thanks to steep
transport costs. This scarcity began to be felt especially in the arid
stretches of the Punjab province, which had a limited supply of timber
and no coal mines at easy reach. Here, the railways began to rely on
wood from rukhs, ie the forests of the plains, and the Himalayan regions
nearby.
'Railway track along a hill', Samuel Bourne
Fuel demand reduced green cover so much
that in 1865, a Forest Department was set up to ‘conserve’ the forests.
This move handed ownership of the land to the British government, who
reserved areas exclusively for fuel. By 1870, nearly 4 lakh acres of
plain forest land was reserved—the supply of wood from it would last
only two years. By the mid-1870s, railway companies in the Subcontinent
were forced to import coal from England. The seemingly inexhaustible
forests of India were finally exhausted.
'The Loop, Agony Point, Darjeeling Hill Railway', Samuel Bourne
In conflict with the wild
As the rail network spread and rapid
deforestation followed in its trail, the impact was seen on wildlife
too. Telegrams sent during the construction of various railroads contain
reports of tiger, blackbucks and elephants being sighted on the
platform or station. These encounters were characterised in the media of
the time as clashes between the jungles of India and the modern
‘civilising’ influence of British technology. The first incident of a
train colliding with an elephant was reported in 1869, and these fatal
accidents are common even today, especially in central and eastern
India. Tigers and elephants are particularly susceptible. Ironic given
the proud presence of the stately Asian elephant at the top of the
emblem of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.
Emblem of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, RegentsPark, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Switching tracks to go green
Victoria Terminus aka 'The Most Magnificent Railway Station In The World, Bombay, India', c.1900s
In the 20th Century, Indian
railway companies continued to move in tandem with British Railways when
it came to technological advancements. Coal was replaced by
diesel—considered ‘clean’ energy at the time—and later oil was replaced
with electricity. In 1925, the first electrical engine was used in a
train that ran from Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus (now the Chhatrapati
Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) till Kurla. The electric engine is today used
by 63% of all Indian trains and the Railways Ministry has committed to
gradually electrifying all routes.
In contrast with its troubled beginnings,
Indian railways today offer one of the greenest transportation systems
in the world. According to the 2017 book Railway Ecology, our
country boasts the lowest CO2 emissions per passenger-km (10 g
CO2/passenger-km) and the lowest rate of energy consumed per tonne of
goods transported (102 kJ/tonne-km). In July 2020, Indian Railways
announced that it would be a net zero carbon emitter by 2030. It is
incorporating more green energy in the form of solar power and biofuel,
managing waste and water more efficiently, and taking steps to reduce
wildlife fatalities.
As train lines continue to expand, there is
greater awareness about their harmful impact on sensitive eco-systems
and vulnerable communities. There are citizen movements across modern
India that protest the construction of new railway lines, metro sheds
and bullet trains. Where the railway system was once seen as an
unquestioned boon of colonialisation, today there is greater call for
accountability from a service that transports over 1 billion passengers
each year. It’s a redemptive step forward in the journey of one of the
most enduring symbols of the Anthropocene in India.
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