CBSE Class 8 Answered

 Forests, since the ancient times were a storehouse of metal ores like iron and copper, and gold and silver, coal and diamonds. Besides, medicinal herbs and animal products (wax, lac, honey) and animals themselves (elephants, used in the imperial armies) came from the forests. Forests covered the major part of our country till the nineteenth century and the Adivasis had a deep knowledge of, access to, as well as control over most of these vast tracts at least till the middle of the nineteenth century. Thus,Tribals were not ruled by large states and empires, instead often empires heavily depended on Adivasis or the tribals for the crucial access to forest resources.