James Michael (forester)

General James Michael (1828 – 17 February 1907) was a British army officer with the Madras Staff Corps who served as a pioneer forester in the Anamalais in India.

His work to show that timber operations could be made financially lucrative helped established the Forest Department in India.

He was promoted Colonel on 10 December 1875 and on 7 March 1876 he was made Companion of the Order of the Star of India.

[6] He had spent some time in Switzerland observing forestry operations and he was proposed by General Frederick Conyers Cotton to oversee the forests of the Anamalai hills where timber contractors were supposedly cutting down trees for the Bombay dockyards with little concern for sustainability.

He was posted there in June 1848 and after 7 years of working he was forced to resign due to poor health.