very considerable. The details of the kind, number and estimated present value of the trees on the 30th April, 1847, are as follows: Kikur (Vachallia farnesiana), 91,520; Bamboo (Bambusa, var. sp.), 4,420; Jamun (Eugenia Jambos), 6,914; Kutchna (Bauhinia), 1,771; Mango (Mangifera indica), 1,060; Mulberry (Morus, var. sp.), 18,746; Nim (Melia Azaderach), 7,126; Cirrus (Acacia Serissa), 13,966; Sissu (Dalbergia Sissoo), 184,252; Toon (Cedrela toona), 35,487; Sundry, 9,990. Total: 375,252. The estimated value of these trees is 5,66,998 rupees, and the total expenditure by Government up to the present time amounts to only 27,363 rupees, or about one-fourth of the revenue derived from the plantations." The revenue between 1820-21 and 1846-47 amounted to rupees 90,822. "The plantations on the Eastern Jumna Canal were commenced simultaneously with the canal itself, and have been extended systematically from that period to the present time. The kinds and numbers of the trees in the canal plantations are as follows: Sissu, 209,870; Cirrus, 8,058; Kikur, 28,501 ; Nim, 6,799; Mulberry, 9,306; Bamboos, 1,906; Lullow, 2,774; Teak, 1,158; Toon, 15,967; Sundry, 7,416. Total: 291,754. "The estimated value of the plantations is rupees 1,46,793; and the total expense incurred by Government in their formation up to April, 1847, is rupees 22,142, which sum, as will be seen, has been nearly covered by the sale of wood, etc., from the banks." The revenue obtained between 1830-31 and 1846-47 amounted to rupees 21,977. CHAPTER XI THE INITIAL STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FOREST POLICY, 1850-1857-THE ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB, OUDH AND THE PEGU PROVINCE, BURMA T HE years between 1850-7 witnessed the first beginnings of forest conservancy in Southern India, and it has therefore been deemed advisable to deal with this period separately, detailing briefly the departures and progress made in Madras, Bombay, Burma and elsewhere in India, a progress which was the direct outcome of the mistakes, now becoming obvious, made in the past. It has been shown that it had been repeatedly urged during the previous twenty years both in Madras and Bombay that scientific advice in the management of the forests had become an urgent necessity if the forests were to be preserved from complete destruction. In 1847 the Bombay Government had appointed Dr. Gibson Conservator of Forests in that Presidency. Madras did not follow the example till nine years later (1856), when Dr. Cleghorn was appointed Conservator of Forests in that Presidency. Cleghorn, as has been already shown, had for some years interested himself in the forestry question, and had submitted a report on the Conservancy of the Forests to Government in 1856. These two appointments may be said to have been the first real steps taken in these Presidencies towards the initiation of the beginning of a continuity in the conservancy and management of the forests. In Burma the history of the administration of the forests underwent a marked change before the end of the period here dealt with. Dr. Falconer, who had been deputed to visit and report on the Tenasserim Forests in 1849, submitted the Report of his investigations in January, 1851. This Report confirmed the general opinion that the licence system which had been in force since 1829 had almost ruined the greater bulk of the forests. The Commissioner, Mr. Colvin, had organised, after Captain Latter's departure, a small forestry department which endeavoured to work the Rules in force, but with scant success. The grantees still carried out their operations on the old lines, and this state of affairs was in existence when Dr. Brandis took over charge of the Tenasserim and Martaban Forests in 1857. The In 1852 the Province of Pegu was annexed. For nearly a hundred years teak timber had been one of the chief exports from Rangoon, the forests having been treated as Royal property by the Alompra dynasty. With this precedent to guide them the Government soon after the annexation proclaimed all the forests to be Government property, and Dr. McClelland was appointed Superintendent of Forests. rights of the new Government to the ownership of the forest property were not disputed, but the proclamation did not put an end to the wasteful exploitation by timber merchants, the increased demand for teak timber resulting in the same methods of intensified fellings which had succeeded our advent in Madras and Tenasserim. The new Superintendent spent some months in travelling through and examining the forests, the results of his observations being compiled in a report submitted to Government in 1854. In this report he suggested certain restrictions to the unchecked exploitment by private parties. It was this report which resulted in the famous Memorandum of the Government of India, dated 3rd August, 1855, which may well be termed the Charter of the Indian Forests, in which Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General, laid down for the first time the outline of a permanent policy for forest conservancy. This Memorandum will be dealt with in full later on. It should be known to every Indian Forester and those who have an interest in the great forest estate in India. Briefly summarised the Governor-General enunciated the following forest policy : Lord Dalhousie pointed out that on the annexation of the Province of Pegu it was laid down as the ruling principle in the management of the forests that the teak timber should be retained as State property. That in consequence all killed (by ringing or girdling) standing trees and felled trees still lying in the forests, as also standing green trees, were public property to which individuals had no right or claim. That the |