Khedas in South-Eastern Bengal: Colonialism and Wildlife 1765–1810

Abstract

This article examines the colonial impact on wildlife in the region of Bengal in the late eighteenth century. Taking the English East India Company's engagement with the Indian elephant as a point of entry into colonial environmental practices, the article focuses on the kheda or elephant-catching operations in the three districts of Sylhet, Chittagong and Tipperah. Unlike the tiger, which was classified as dangerous and decimated during the colonial era, the elephant was less liable to be killed on account of its military utility, but was caught and domesticated in large numbers. The article argues that the EIC, following pre-colonial traditions and Mughal practices, attempted to control the channels of supply of the animal in the three above-mentioned areas, but in doing so they were perennially dependent on local agency and native expertise. Depending on the native tracksmen, elephant-keepers and traders, the EIC officials acquired their knowledge on the elephant and the Indian environment largely through indigenous collaboration and initiated global transfers of knowledge between the coloniser and colonised environments.