Dietrich Brandis 881346 202336508 2008-03-31T17:25:11Z Rhanyeia 4370225 fix '''Sir Dietrich Brandis''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], [[Order of the Indian Empire|KCIE]] ([[March 31]], [[1824]] &ndash; [[May 29]], [[1907]], [[Bonn]]) was a [[Germans|German]] [[forester]] who worked in [[India]]. He is considered the father of [[tropics|tropical]] [[forestry]]. [[Image:DietrichBrandis.jpg|thumb]] ==Early life== Dietrich Brandis was born in [[Bonn]], the son of Dr Christian Brandis, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bonn. He studied at the universities of Copenhagen, Gottingen, Nancy and Bonn. In 1849 he took up a post of a lecturer in botany at Bonn. His interest in forest management was initially from a botanical perspective. ==India== The British government in India was interested in the use of forest produce and the felling of trees was unregulated and between 1847 and 1850 it was realized that the forests were being lost. In 1850, the [[British Association]] in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of [[Hugh Cleghorn]]. In 1855, [[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|Lord Dalhousie]], the [[Governor-General of India]] issued a Memorandum of the Government of India dated 3-8-1855. This was based on reports submitted by John McClelland, then Superintendent of Forests in [[Burma]] (then part of the Indian Empire). This was a time when the need for forest management was felt. Brandis joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu division in eastern [[Myanmar|Burma]]. During that time Burma's [[teak]] forests were controlled by militant [[Karen people|Karen]] tribals. He introduced the "taungya" system (King KFS (1968). "Agro-silviculture (the taungya system)". University of Ibadan / Dept. of Forestry, Bulletin no. 1, 109pp.), in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. In return they were allowed to plant crops for the first few years between the trees. As the teak trees grew, villagers were moved to new land and the process was repeated. As a result of this process, many villagers became dependent on the state forestry service and local resistance to the state takeover of forests became increasingly difficult. Brandis was initially interested in botany. His herbarium and botanical library which he shipped from Calcutta to Rangoon were lost when the boat carrying it capsized. This loss led him to shift his focus from botanical studies to forestry. Brandis' work included determination of teak volume, rate of growth, identifying rate of harvest, developing forest protection plans against pests and fire. He also introduced timber purchase rules, clearing rules and the establishment of managed teak areas called ''conservancies'' with officers who were appointed as ''Conservators''. After seven years in Burma, Brandis became Inspector General of Forests in India, a position he served in for 20 years. He formulated new forest legislations and helped establish research and training institutions. The Indian Forest College at [[Dehra Dun]] was founded by him. Brandis was created a Companion of the Indian Empire in 1878. Brandis documented the sacred groves in Rajputana and ''Kans'' (woodlands) of [[Mysore]], the Garo and Khasia hills which he visited in 1879, the ''[[Sacred grove|Devarakadus]]'' of [[Coorg]] in 1868, and the hill ranges of the Salem district in the Madras Presidency in 1882, the ''Swami Shola'' on the [[Yelagiri Hills|Yelagiris]], the sacred grove at Pudur on the [[Javadi Hills|Javadis]] and several sacred forests on the [[Shevaroys]]. He was among the earliest in India to formally link forest protection with local peoples. Brandis was also involved in forestry education in England at Coopers' Hill and here he also influenced and mentored many like B. Ribbentrop, W. Schlich and C.A. Schenck of Germany, and [[Gifford Pinchot]] and Henry Graves (the first and second chiefs of the USDA Forest Service) of the United States. He influenced the forestry movement in the United States by mentoring Pinchot, Graves, and others who came to study with him in Germany, and through his voluminous correspondence with many other men such as Charles Sprague Sargent and [[Franklin Hough]] involved in establishing the U.S. national forest system. Pinchot relied heavily upon Brandis' advice for introducing professional forest management in the U.S. and on how to structure the Forest Service when Pinchot established it in 1905. His influence was so great that President [[Theodore Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], sent him a photograph in 1896 with the inscription "To Sir Dietrich Brandis, in high appreciation of his services to forestry in the United States. From Theodore Roosevelt." He also took an interest in the forest flora of northwest and central India and Indian trees. Even after retirement Brandis continued to work on Indian forestry and at the age of 75 he started his principal botanical work, ''Indian trees'', dealing with 4400 species. It was first published in 1906 and re-issued several times afterwards, the last time in 1971. He was posted at Balaghat in M.P as a principal of forester training institute for a long time in his service period. Many species of plants are named after him: * ''[[Dendrocalamus brandisii]]'' Kz. * ''[[Diospyros brandisiana]]'' Kz * ''[[Ochlandra brandisii]]'' Gamble * ''[[Macaranga brandisii]]'' King * ''[[Millettia brandisiana]]'' Kz * ''[[Orophea brandisii]]'' Hk f & Th * ''[[Pedicularis brandisii]]'' Benth * ''[[Quercus brandisiana]]'' Kz * ''[[Ardisia brandisiana]]'' Kz * ''[[Iodes brandisii]]'' Kz * ''[[Ixora brandisiana]]'' Kz * ''[[Loranthus brandisanus]]'' Kz * The genus ''[[Brandisia]]'' Hk f. & Th. is also named after him. {{botanist|Brandis|Brandis, Dietrich}} ==References== <references/> * (1907) Obituary: Sir Dietrich Brandis, F. R. S. The Geographical Journal 30(1):97. * Rao, V. S. 1961. ''100 years of Indian Forestry''. Souvenir. Forest Research Institute. Dehra Dun. [http://www.archive.org/details/100yearsofindian029827mbp scanned version] * Herbert Hesmer. "Leben und Werk von Dietrich Brandis. Begründer der tropischen Forstwirtschaft, Förderer der forstlichen Entwicklung in den U.S.A., Botaniker und Ökologe". Abstracts of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vol. 58. XXIII u. 476. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen, 1975. * James G. Lewis. ''The Forest Service and the Greatest Good: A Centennial History''. Durham, NC: Forest History Society, 2005. * S. S. Negi. ''Sir Dietrich Brandis: Father of Tropical Forestry''. Dehra Dun, India: Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, 1991. *Weil, Benjamin, "Conservation, Exploitation, and Cultural Change in the Indian Forest Service, 1875-1927". ''Environmental History'' 11.2 (2006): 57 pars. 26 April 2007 [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/11.2/weil.html] ==External links== {{commons|D. Brandis, Illustrations of the Forest Flora of North-West and Central India, 1874|Illustrations of Forest Flora, 1874}} *[http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/brandis/ Scanned plates from the Indian forest flora of Dietrich Brandis] *Jan Oosthoek, [http://www.eh-resources.org/colonial_forestry.html The colonial origins of scientific forestry in Britain] {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandis, Dietrich }} [[Category:1824 births]] [[Category:1907 deaths]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]] [[Category:People from Dehradun]] [[de:Dietrich Brandis]]