 Dietrich Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865.The Indian Forest Act of 1865 extended the British colonialism in India and claimed over forests in India.The 1865 act was a precursor to the Forest Act of 1878, which truncated the centuries-old traditional use by communities of their forests and secured the colonial governments control over the forestry.The act of 1865 empowered the British government to declare any land covered with trees as a government forest and make rules to manage it.The government mainly used the woods for railway sleepers manufacture.This law also made teak wood a government property.