ABSTRACT
The accumulation of the knowledge of surrounding regions and proper management of the labourers became essential for the colonial authority to transform the existing environment where densely forested tropical regions were concerned. In the Victorian period, the British scientists who were specialised in the fields like geology, botany, zoology, entomology, anthropology, lepidopterology move around the planet to gather data about flora, fauna and the minerals to utilize the natural resources as much as possible. The colonial authority blamed the tribal for the unplanned and massive destruction of the forest resources. They used the legal mechanism to ensure the control of the forest resources of Sikkim and Darjeeling. The forest Acts of 1865 and 1878 provided the colonizers a legal support to ‘control’ and ‘systematically utilize’ the forest and the wildlife of the country. In terms of resource utilization in the colonies, the British colonizers used superior scientific knowledge and implemented it through the highly educated British administrators in the colonies.
