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ment, as did his immediate successors, with a plentiful supply of cheap timber. But the methods by which this was done were intolerable and gradually gave rise to seething discontent amongst both proprietors and timber merchants. The feeling rose to such a pitch that the Conservatorship was abolished in 1823 and a great reaction set in to the detriment of the forests.

It was not till 1831 that the Indian Navy Board recommended the re-establishment of the Conservatorship. They consulted the Madras Board of Revenue. The Revenue Board took no action. In 1838, when submitting various reports from Collectors containing more or less practical proposals, they merely suggested that interference, if at all necessary for the conservation of the teak forests, should be under the Revenue Officer; that the latter might be authorised to take steps to prevent the felling of small timber and undersized trees. But they were not in favour of appointing an independent authority.

In 1842 the Court of Directors were of opinion that something might be done to improve the forests by the formation of teak plantations. Although little was attempted on a large scale, under orders of the Madras Government in this direction on the initiation of the Collector of Malabar, Mr. Conolly, the first beginnings of the Nilumbur teak plantations were inaugurated, plantations which have since become famous. Though it was being constantly urged that scientific advice in the management of the forests was becoming an urgent necessity, no step was taken in this direction until the Bombay Government in 1847 appointed Dr. Gibson Conservator of Forests in the Presidency, he having filled the post as interim Conservator for some years previously in addition to his duties in connection with the Botanical Gardens.

In Burma the exploitment of the teak forests dated back long before the advent of the British, the teak having been a royal" tree in Tenasserim and, in fact, in the whole of Burma, long before the British occupation of any part of the Kingdom. The interest of the Home Government was early awakened on the subject of the importance of the Burmese teak timber owing to the decreasing supplies from Malabar and Western India. The Tenasserim Provinces were ceded to the British in 1826 under the Treaty of Yandaboo, and in 1827 Dr. Wallich was deputed to examine the forest resources of the country. He reported that they were unrivalled in comparison with those of any other of the territories in occupation by the East

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India Company. The advice tendered by Wallich was only partially acted upon, however, and the short-sighted step was taken in 1829 of throwing open the forests to speculators who paid an ad valorem duty on the timber extracted. As a result of this policy anxiety as to the maintenance of supplies was being felt locally in 1837. Dr. Helfer was deputed to examine the forests, and reported on the absence of young growth and recommended the formation of plantations. Nothing was done in the matter. In 1841 a proposal was carried against great opposition to cancel all old leases and contracts and issue new agreements with sufficient safeguards in the interests of the future maintenance of the forests. But in practice the safeguards introduced proved to be ineffective.

Captain Tremenheere was appointed Superintendent of Forests in 1841 and reported on the forests and drew up rules which, had they been put into operation, would have done much to save the forests from the ruthless exploitation to which they were being subjected. But neither he nor his successors received the support of the Government. Captain Guthrie with the support of the Commissioner, Captain Durand, attempted to enforce the rules and confiscated areas belonging to licencees who had failed to carry out the rules. But this action was vetoed by the Government and the grants restored. Towards the end of the period Mr. Colvin, the Commissioner at the time, formed a small Forest Department and introduced new rules. But he was strongly in favour of selling the forests outright or giving long leases of ninety-nine years—a policy which fortunately did not meet with the approval of the Court of Directors.

In 1849 Dr. Falconer was deputed to visit and report on the Tenasserim forests. His report belongs to the next period. In Upper India but little attention was paid to the forests by the British officials during this period. The ruthless methods of exploitation, burning and grazing, which had been in force for centuries, continued unchecked. The question of opening out the hill forests of the Punjab and of affording them some measure of protection was receiving some attention in the middle of the century, but no attempts of this nature had been commenced in the North-West Provinces or in Bengal. That the sâl forests of the N.W. Provinces were valuable had been known since the campaign against the Gurkhas in 1814-16; for the latter themselves attached a great value to them. Dr. Wallich had reported upon them in 1825 and on

the ruthless manner in which they were exploited. But no attempts at conservation had been instituted. The great forest tracts in the Central Provinces and in Assam were unexplored and unknown at this time.

During this period a certain amount of correspondence and reports appeared on the serious consequences which the great destruction of forests was having upon the water supplies in certain parts of the country, and on erosion in the hills and the silting up of rivers, creeks and harbours on the coast. In one of his first reports after being appointed Conservator in Bombay Dr. Gibson gave a list of rivers and creeks on the Malabar coast, all of which had silted up within the memory of men living at the time he wrote the report. This aspect of the results following the destruction of forests will be dealt with in detail in the next part.

CHAPTER VI

FOREST OPERATIONS IN THE MADRAS AND BOMBAY
PRESIDENCIES, 1796-1840

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URING the earliest days of the British occupation in Madras and Bombay but little regard appears to have been paid to the forests, save as a timberyielding agency. Nor, when enquiries began to be made into their timber resources, was the information collected on their early history anything like as complete and detailed as that obtained later regarding the Tenasserim Forests. The history of the Forests of the two Presidencies during the period under consideration is so inextricably interwoven that it has proved necessary to review it concurrently.

The principal forest districts were those of Malabar, Canara, Travancore and Guzerat on the west; and on the east extensive forests in the neighbourhood of Rajahmundry stretching inland in a westerly direction towards the territories of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Malabar forests were supposed to contain abundant stores of excellent teak timber, and for this reason they early attracted the notice of the Bombay Government, to which the Province of Malabar was subject for some years after its acquisition. In those early days it was assumed that these teak forests were private property.

The forests were regarded from the purely utilitarian point of view. Teak timber formed the main demand of the Government officials for shipbuilding, military and other purposes, and the arrangements necessary for felling the trees and their transport from the forests was the only end in view. The earliest record of these attempts is the formation of a timber syndicate in Malabar in 1796 in which enterprise Mr. Machonochie of the Medical Service was the prime mover. This syndicate appears to have prospered for a time and then collapsed. Other similar attempts were conceived, chiefly in connection

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