should be created, had, before the year was out, drawn up a full and concise Report of the fuel resources for the supply of the Punjab Railway.

One remaining source of supply, likely to become of great importance, Cleghorn thought, had not yet been dealt with, viz. the plantations on the Western Jumna, Bara Doab and Inundation Canals. Dr. Stewart proposed to visit and report upon these.

CHAPTER XXVI

FOREST OPERATIONS IN THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDH, 1858-1864

I

N a previous chapter the campaigns against the Gurkhas in 1814-16 were briefly alluded to. As a result of these campaigns the northern parts of the North-West Provinces, known as Kumaun and Garhwal, came under British rule. This region stretches eastward from the Sutlej, consisting of an area of territory mainly situated in the Himalaya, but including the tract of country stretching along the base of the mountains, and known as the Terai. This portion of the Himalayan region was reported to contain fine forests of conifers as well as broad-leaved trees, but at this period the region was almost unknown. The same may be said to have been the case with the inaccessible parts of the broad belt of sâl forest in the Terai lands, though the accessible areas had been treated hardly by the people.

In the absence of any attempt to introduce forest protection or forest conservancy into the forests of the North-West Provinces and Oudh the people were still carrying out, in the late 'fifties, the ruthless methods of exploitation which had been in force for centuries. Whole forests were being devastated by fire and by unregulated fellings. The forests were burnt every year either to clear the undergrowth for hunting or by the graziers to obtain a crop of young grass.

A brief review of the first attempts to mitigate these evils in the North-West Provinces and Oudh, will be given in this chapter. It may be stated at once, however, that the NorthWest Provinces were more backward in this respect than the other provinces already described.

As a first step towards introducing some amount of supervision and regulation in the management of the forests the Commissioners of Divisions were appointed ex officio Con

servators of Forests within their divisions in 1860. The Commissioner of Kumaun and Garhwal, Colonel (afterwards Sir Henry) Ramsay, took up the question of putting a stop to the devastation of the forests with enthusiasm, and in the plains forests of his charge stopped to some degree the promiscuous hacking by all and sundry who entered at will into the forest tracts. In the Gorakhpur District a commencement had been made in some of the forests on the same lines.

About 1860 it was decided to create a sanatorium for British troops at Naini Tal. This now well-known hill station had been discovered a few years previously by Ramsay. At that time there was only a vague report of a beautiful and sacred valley high up in the mountains uninhabited by any save a few jogis, or priests, but with no known path leading to it. Ramsay undertook an expedition to explore the lofty peak of China Pahar, and during a march came suddenly upon the lake at Naini Tal nestled in a secluded valley under the summit. The steep hills which surrounded it on every side were then clothed with a dense forest of evergreen oaks (Quercus incana and Q. dilatata) and other species. The forests were at the time the favourite haunt of wild animals— sambhar, gural, bear and tiger being abundant. Ramsay said that he had seen a herd of wild elephant climbing up the steep slopes of China, and that he had in those days such shooting as he had nowhere else found the equal of. He built himself a two-storied house at Naini Tal on the plateau of Ayar Pathar; other houses were built soon afterwards, as also a native bazaar. In those early days a very steep path had been engineered up the face of the precipice from the Juli side, up which everything had to be carried. The Government of the North-West Provinces subsequently followed the Commissioner's example and decided to make Naini Tal the summer head-quarters, and it was determined to add a sanatorium for British troops. It was the period of activity and clear, shrewd foresight by men of the right stamp which followed the Mutiny. Conspicuous amongst these was Ramsay. He had formed and administered the provinces of Garhwal and Kumaun with brilliant success, and he saved his division during the Mutiny by taking the bold step, for it was a bold one to take, of promising the Gurkha sepoys the contents of the treasury at Almora if they remained true. This was in the darkest days of the Mutiny when, without a European soldier near to protect them, he had hundreds of English

women and children, refugees from Mussoorie and the plains, under his charge.

Ramsay at this time was the acknowledged autocrat of these hill districts, and was greatly beloved by the hill people, who had for so long been misgoverned. He developed with considerable skill and energy the resources of his charge. Amongst others he took up the question of the forests, and was the first Conservator of Forests of this region.

When the decision had been come to that accommodation was to be built for troops at Naini Tal, and now that it had become the head-quarters of the Local Government, it became necessary to improve the means of access to it; for the steep coolie path was far from adequate. It was decided to construct a good road from the foot of the hills up to the new summer head-quarters, and Mr. T. W. Webber was appointed to the charge of this work in 1861, the road taking the best part of three years to construct. In describing this work Webber remarks that timber was plentiful, and he burnt his lime on the spot. But the road was not an easy one to build, owing to the well-known shaly nature of the strata on many of the slopes of these mountains.

In proceeding to his new charge Webber graphically relates the tedious method of travelling of those days. The choice lay between riding, or bullock (or pony) cart, where a road existed, usually for short journeys; or the palanquin or dhooly for long journeys, when it was necessary to post through, and no post carts existed, or through roadless parts of the country. Such journeys were often done at night. Webber's description merits reproduction, since this antiquated method of travelling was still the general one in 1860, and survived much later in many parts; is not, in fact, yet extinct in 1920. "The dust of an unmetalled road, with the dense smoke of flaring torches, had filled the air all night long and made it unbreathable. The monotonous 'Huh, huh! huh, huh!' of the black and perspiring Kahars, or dhooly-bearers, as they struggled along under the weight of a primitive apparatus, made of canvas stretched on a rough framework, and called a 'dhooly,' had made the night everlasting. There had never been a chance of five minutes' consecutive sleep for the weary traveller reclining within. The long bamboo on which the vehicle. hung, borne on the shoulders of four men, while four more ran beside, taking shift every five minutes, following the torch bearer, swung horribly from the trotting motion of the bearers,

who, instead of trotting out of time, would drop into step, thus causing the bamboo to bend with the steps of the carriers, and the unlucky passenger to be shot up and down in the dhooly like a parched pea on a drum. The sliding doors on each side, if closed to keep out the dust and flare of the smelly torches, would also exclude what slight air might be stirring, and the heat inside would be stifling. Added to these discomforts, the uncertainty of finding fresh relays of bearers at each ten-mile change, and the yelling of the tired men to announce their arrival to the fresh bearers who might be asleep by the roadside, or perhaps still in their village, had also a disturbing effect on the traveller's sleep. Ditto the demands for backsheesh, in addition to the legal pay already given before the journey is commenced, in consideration for the unexceptionable excellence of the manner in which the stage had been performed." It can be readily understood that on a night's journey of from forty to fifty miles performed under these conditions but little sleep was obtained. And yet the old East India Company had made no effort to alter the timehonoured Indian ways of locomotion or to improve methods of travelling even between important cities and towns. The dhooly, the bullock train, the dak-gharry, pony cart, or the more rapid post cart, where it existed, had been the customary means of travelling, and they had persisted. Accordingly, in 1861, Webber travelled through the swamps and tall feathery jungle grass of the Terai, and then through twenty miles or so of the dark green sâl forests of the Bhabar by the broad, straight, unmetalled road running from Bareilly to the foot of the Himalaya by dhooly, a hill pony taking him up the mountain-side to Naini Tal.

Webber spent the next three years on the work of building the road up to Naini Tal.

In 1862, instructions were sent to Brandis, Superintendent of Forests in Burma, to proceed to the head-quarters of the Government of India to advise on the introduction of a general policy for the administration of the forests of India.

As a first step he was ordered to visit Bengal, Oudh, the North-West Provinces and the Central Provinces, with a view to obtaining a more precise knowledge of the condition of the forests of these Provinces, and the system of working in force in them to aid him in organising a more efficient conservancy, and a more methodical system of management generally. Brandis' visit to the North-West Provinces quickly showed him