ABSTRACT
The railways was very crucial for the British imperial power in India. Expansion of the railways was accorded great significance in the second half of the nineteenth century. India saw one of the most rapid expansions of the railways anywhere in the world. The government even introduced the guarantee system to ensure private investment in railway in India. Ramachandra Guha was amongst the first scholars to suggest that the railway expansion was closely linked to deforestation in India. The expansion of the railways required laying down of tracks. Tracks were kept together by ties. Different kinds of material were used for sleepers. Collection of information about forests had begun in the early nineteenth century. Many officials were reporting about forest wealth from the 1840s, but it was Henry Ramsay who produced a detailed report in 1861 on the forests of submontane tracks of Uttarakhand.
