By the 19th century, during the British period, the furnaces fell into most of the Indian villages one of the reasons was the new forest laws that the colonial government had enacted. The furnaces were most often built of clay and sun-dried bricks. By the late nineteenth century, however, the craft of iron smelting was in decline. The new forest laws When the colonial government prevented people from entering the reserved forests. Defying forest laws, they often entered the forests secretly and collected wood, but they could not sustain their occupation on this basis for long. Iron smelters had to pay a very high tax to the forest department for every furnace they used. Many gave up their craft and looked for other means oflivelihood. By the late nineteenth century, iron and steel were being imported from BritainImportant PointsProduction of Wootz steel required a highly specialized technique of refining iron. Iron smelting (Extraction of metals from iron ores) in India was extremely common till the end of the nineteenth century. The smelting was done by men while women worked the bellows, pumping air that kept the charcoal burning. In some areas, the government did grant access to the forest.