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in the Sambalpur Mohals in 1859–60, but was recalled shortly after Cleghorn's visit to Gumsur, owing to the difficulties he encountered in endeavouring to get the timber required. Cleghorn states that with these exceptions, "I believe that no systematic operations have been attempted."

One of the reasons for the difficulty experienced in endeavouring to commence the exploitation of the sâl forests, in his own division, was expressed as follows by the Commissioner of Cuttack in 1851: "There is much difficulty in getting timber of the dimensions required by the gun-carriage factory. The largest trees near to the river have been removed, and the Rajas do not evince a willingness to cut those in the more distant forests, and require much persuasion to induce them to afford the requisite aid, without which no timbers of the desired dimensions can be procured. Again, the labour of the coolies employed by the Rajas to remove the timber is compulsory and unremunerated. On the other hand, if they be employed by the Agent, the Raja or his servant exacts a portion of the hire. They are therefore not overwilling to lend a helping hand.”

Cleghorn marched through the Gumsur sâl forests and noted that the rivers traversing them would permit of rafting the timber out. He corroborated Falconer's remarks about the wasteful use of the sâl (vide p. 105) of all ages, from fiveyear-old saplings upwards, for every kind of purpose. He also notes on the prolific seeding of the tree, and the dense masses of saplings which came up on the ground if a few old seed trees were left to provide it. "With this heavy drain (in felling) on the forests, young plants spring up in profusion, and often so thick as to choke each other." Cleghorn also made a similar statement to that of Falconer, that "there is no fear of exterminating the forest provided a few trees remain as standards per acre, to perpetuate the stock." He noted that "large patches of sâl forest are cleared annually for the purpose of cultivation, and this is usually effected by fire. I came upon several places where some hundreds of fine straight charred poles were standing."

On the subject of the Gangam sâl forests Cleghorn said that the district required opening out. There was an abundance of wood. All that appeared necessary was to reserve the sâl and a few other superior woods confining the firewoodcutting to the woods of less value. A good bridged cart road ran from Gangam to Russelconda. A road from Russelconda

had been cleared up to Durgaprasad, near the foot of the Kalingia Ghát. The Konds came down once a week to the market at Belligunza, bringing oil seed, wheat, tumeric and a little cotton; they returned the following day. Captain Harrington was engaged in erecting a large rest house for them. It was intended to continue the road to Sambalpur, where it would join the high road to Nagpur. The road track ran through the sâl forests, but kept to the high ground, whereas the best sâl was at the lower levels.

This record of the position of the forests of this portion of Northern Madras and the south-western corner of the Bengal Presidency at this period is of interest. Cleghorn sums up his opinion on the forests as follows:

"The sâl forests of Gumsur are the most valuable tract of wood on the eastern coast, and the only one I have seen which would repay European superintendence; still it scarcely ranks in value with a second-class forest of the western coast. Perhaps there are parts of Rajamandri and Masulipatam which may hereafter contain teak of more value than the sâl of Kimadi and Gumsur; but at present there is nothing left on Government land save seedlings of comparatively small girth, the Godavari River banks having been cleared, and the best wood exhausted. In consequence of the unhealthy climate of Gumsur, and the difficulties which would be experienced by European or Eurasian overseers, I think the work of felling and preparing rafts should be organised at Gangam." The operations Cleghorn outlined as divisible into three distinct stages: (1) Felling and transport of the logs to the river bank. (2) Floating the rafts to a depôt at Gangam. (3) Shipping timber to Madras.

At the same time he was not prepared to propose any establishment to undertake the working of these forests at that time!

Sâl timber, at this period, had still to make its way into the southern markets against its all-powerful but rapidly disappearing rival, the teak!

In Mysore a separate Forest Department was inaugurated, Major A. Hunter being appointed Conservator on 11 January, 1864. Lieutenant G. J. van Someron was appointed Ist Assistant Conservator in this department on 4th May, and placed in charge of the Ashtagram and Coorg Ranges. Lieutenant E. W. Miller was appointed 2nd Assistant Conservator in July, 1864, and appointed to the charge of the Nuggur

Range, and two other assistants were appointed in the following year.

The Conservator and his assistants spent the year 1864-5 in making themselves acquainted with the large districts under their charge, in framing new Rules and establishing office procedure. So that little in the way of real forest administration was carried out before the close of the period here dealt with.

On the expiration of his furlough at home Cleghorn returned to India in November, 1861, and was sent to the Punjab to report on the forests of the Western Himalaya, as will be elsewhere described.

In January, 1864, he was associated with Brandis, who had been summoned from Burma in October, 1862, to advise the Government of India in the general organisation of forest administration. On Brandis' recommendation Cleghorn was placed on deputation to assist in this work, a signal recognition of his good work in organising the department in Madras. Cleghorn remained in this capacity till March, 1865. Whilst still on deputation in the Punjab Forests, Brandis and Cleghorn had drawn up in August, 1863, a joint Memorandum submitted to the Government of Madras, on the subject of the forests of that Presidency. The Memorandum urged the necessity of the early demarcation of the Government and village forests of Madras. These proposals were not, however, at the time approved of by the Madras Government. In spite of the persistent representations subsequently made on the same subject by the Government of India, no adequate action was made in Madras towards effecting a separation of the various rights and interests in the public forests and waste lands until the Madras Forest Act was passed in 1882.

Cleghorn laid the first foundation of an effective system of Forest Conservancy in Mysore and Madras, as was publicly acknowledged by Brandis, at a time when Forestry was very little known in India. A public Resolution by the Government of India of 10th January, 1865, justly designated Cleghorn as the "Founder of Forest Conservancy in India," and added: "His long services from the first organisation of Forest management in Madras have without question greatly conduced to the public good in this branch of the administration; and in the Punjab also Dr. Cleghorn's labours have prepared the way for the establishment of an efficient system of conservancy and working of the forests of that Province."

CHAPTER XIX

THE INITIATION OF FOREST CONSERVANCY IN THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY AND SIND, 1858-1864

T

HE history of the attempts made to introduce some form of Forest Conservancy for the protection and amelioration of the forests of the Bombay Presidency from 1838 onwards, has been traced in previous chapters. The aims of the Government, as laid down on paper, should, had they been given practical effect to, have achieved a considerable improvement in the management of the forests. Their Conservator, Gibson, was able to make some progress. He appears to have confined his energies, during the ten years he held the post of Conservator, to three main objects, and his tours in the forests seem to have been undertaken to attain them. These were the prohibition, so far as possible, of Kumri cultivation, in which we have seen that by 1859 the practice had been very nearly stopped in the forests of the Presidency. In Belgaum the following Rules had been introduced: Ist, Kumri cultivation is absolutely prohibited, except within four miles of the ridge of the Gháts in the Bidi taluk, and within two miles of the ridge in the Padshapur taluk. 2nd, Within the said limits, no timber trees, whether large or small, are to be cut down for clearing Kumris, and no ground within the said limits is to be cleared for Kumri without the written permission of the district officers. In the Dharwar Collectorate the practice was said to have been entirely stopped. Gibson's second object was to institute thinnings amongst the young teak areas in the reserves, and to commence forming teak plantations; and the third to carry out a systematic study of the results of the denudation of the forests on the climate of various localities, and on the water supplies in these areas, together with the results perceivable in the drying up of springs and streams, and the silting up of rivers and harbours on the coast.

From the correspondence it becomes apparent that Gibson

experienced considerable opposition to the introduction of conservancy from the Collectors of the districts, who were, as a body, strongly opposed to the advent of a new Department who would take over the management of the forest portions, and with them the revenue, of their districts. The divided control, which was in the hands of several departments, also resulted in great confusion and in little real progress in conservancy; whilst the accounts of the Department and the supervision of the methods by which the revenue was collected were in a deplorably chaotic condition.

One of the main reasons for the position into which the Department had drifted was to be attributed to the inadequacy of the establishment when contrasted with the area it had to control. The Conservator had only one assistant, a small office establishment and a staff of Foresters, whose total monthly pay amounted to Rs.358 only. "It is only by turning to account, here and there, the services of the carcoons and peons (who, it will be remembered, were employed in the collection of the fees for forest materials in transit from the forests, p. 220), that the Conservator had been able to exercise any watch over the forests, or provide in any manner for their conservancy. In the Tanna Collectorate and elsewhere, wherever the right to collect the fees was farmed, no such assistance could be given to the few peons and foresters employed to watch the forests, and the general result of this lax system has been most serious on the forest resources; it being the general complaint everywhere, that all valuable timber has nearly disappeared, and that the supplies of firewood and other timber are being rapidly cleared away.

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Owing to the growing scarcity of timber, and the extensive demand for wood of all descriptions for building and railway purposes, prices have within the last few years so risen as to hold out immense temptations to everyone permitted to fell timber, or to enter the forests, to turn their opportunity to the best account. Not only is timber clandestinely removed from the forests, but the felling is conducted in the most reckless and wasteful manner, and to such an extent has the devastating process been carried that serious apprehensions are entertained that if the forests are not more strictly conserved than they have hitherto been, and the Conservator's Department placed on an efficient footing to cope with the evil, the supplies of timber will fail altogether" (Resolution of Bombay Government).

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