carried out. It is impossible to rate too highly the importance of the Sylviculturist and his work during the next decade or so in India. But his operations seem to require to be restricted to sylviculture and not to be overloaded with statistical work, which is quite outside his sphere.

CHAPTER XV

FIRE PROTECTION IN THE FORESTS OF INDIA AND BURMA, 1901-25

I

N no other branch of Forest Administration in India have opinions so changed as in the matter of fire protecting the forests. It will be remembered that before the end of last century the first heretical suggestions (for they were so considered) were made questioning the correctness of the theory and practice of indiscriminate fire protection in the Burma teak forests. The officer who voiced that opinion was the late H. Slade, a brilliant Forester. He wrote an article entitled "Too much Fire Protection in Burma," which was published in the Indian Forester (May, 1896). Ribbentrop, Inspector-General, in An. Rep. For. Ad., 1896-7, pp. 27-31, summarized all the official information and the letters of May, July, and August, 1896, in the Indian Forester, and gave it as his confirmed opinion, based on his knowledge of the Burmese Forests, that fire protection was essential there as elsewhere in India. It may be stated at once that incalculable direct and indirect benefits had resulted through the introduction of fire protection in the forests of the country. Its application to every type of forest, and the importance attached by Forest Officers to the rigid enforcement of such protection over large areas, had resulted in the Government taking up the position that the law was to be obeyed in this respect and that penalties for disobedience were to be unswervingly inflicted. Owing to fire protection it is probable that the people of India learnt the sooner to realize the Government's determination, wavering although it often was, to conserve its Forest Estate, than would have been the case if such grave importance had not been attached to their protection from this source of damage. But the fact remains that towards the close of the century a few officers were questioning the value of fire protection under certain conditions; whether, in other words, the regeneration of the

forests, and the species in question at the time was teak, was not suffering through the rigid protection from fire.

The present century has witnessed what can only be termed a revolution in this matter, and the practical experience which has been gained in India must prove of equal importance, local conditions being allowed for, to all the semi-tropical and tropical forests of the world.

Since this enquiry was first started in Burma we may commence by considering the lines upon which it proceeded in that Province. It may be said, however, that the enquiry once taken up resulted in investigations, aided by the Sylviculturist, which have led to the introduction of a procedure in different parts of India which may result in the attainment of objects, sylvicultural and other, far remote from the mere protection or otherwise of a forest from fire.

Fire Protection in Burma.-The following summary of the history of fire protection in Burma during the period here considered is given in an Inspection Report ("Note on a Tour of Inspection in Burma," 4th March, 1914) by Sir George Hart, Inspector-General of Forests. After referring to Slade's letter on the subject in the Indian Forester, Hart wrote: "This subject was carefully considered in 1897, when it was decided on the advice of the then Inspector-General of Forests, Mr. B. Ribbentrop, that fire protection should be extended as far as funds and administrative considerations allowed, with the result that between 1896-7 and 1906-7 the area under protection rose from 1856 square miles to 8153 square miles.

The decision of 1897 did not, however, satisfy many Burma Forest Officers, and the opposition to the continued protection of all classes of forests continued to grow steadily. In the Indian Forester for March, 1905, Mr. Troup published the results of enumerations of the stock carried out in two adjoining plots in the Tharrawaddy Forests, one of which had been protected successfully for nineteen years, and the other of which had been burnt over annually. These enumerations were confined to poles of 1 foot to 2 feet in girth, to poles and saplings under I foot in girth, and to seedlings: reduced to the numbers to be found on 50 acres they showed: (i.) a much larger proportion of unsound and dead stems to sound stems in the protected plot, (ii.) ten times as many seedlings in the unprotected plot as in the protected plot and (iii.) that about half the sound stems in the protected area were in danger of suppression and would probably disappear, while those in the

unprotected plot were mostly sound, well-grown, without sign of fire damage and in little danger of suppression. Mr. Troup concluded that with continued protection teak must eventually disappear from the protected plot."

Troup's results were published in the Indian Forester. The writer was in Burma, in Tharrawaddy, at the time and, being Hon. Editor of the magazine, suggested that the investigation should be carried out in order to obtain "copy" which would be of interest to Burma Forest Officers. Hart continues: "In the cold weather of 1906 Mr. Beadon-Bryant, then the Chief Conservator of Forests, visited the Tharrawaddy Division with the object of obtaining further information as to the effects of fire conservancy; and arranged to have further countings made. Among the plots counted on this occasion were four, covering an area of 275 acres, which had been enumerated twenty-two years previously, when the Working Plan was made. The results obtained in these plots, and in six others, confirmed generally the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Troup, viz. that the decrease in the number of teak stems below I foot and between I foot and I foot 6 inches in girth was most conspicuous in areas which had been continually protected from fire for many years.

In 1907 Mr. Bryant compiled a valuable Memorandum on fire conservancy in Burma. After summarizing the past history and dealing with the countings made in the Tharrawaddy Forests, which he considered to have proved conclusively that prolonged fire protection had resulted in a marked decrease of the younger classes, he recorded, as a result of his many tours in the Province, the opinion that the combination of the selection system with fire protection was gradually but surely killing out the teak in all the moist forests of Burma, that is to say, over hundreds, if not thousands, of square miles. He then referred to the benefits to be derived from fire protection and proceeded to classify the forests of Burma into three groups: (a) Forests in which the valuable species are found with an undergrowth of dense periodically and gregariously flowering bamboos, as well as forests of a moist evergreen nature where, with the aid of fire protection, evergreen is encroaching on the teak. (b) Forests with an undergrowth of less dense bamboos which flower sporadically as well as gregariously, and, therefore, are more favourable to reproduction. (c) Forests with an undergrowth of shrubs, herbaceous plants and grasses only, in which the more valuable species

occur in a mixed or pure state (the latter mainly confined to cutch (Acacia Catechu)). He considered that fire protection should be abandoned in class (a), that it was probably beneficial in many forests of class (b), though, perhaps, not possible to maintain owing to the manner in which classes (a) and (b) are intermixed, and that it was certainly beneficial in class (c), where it should be continued and extended.

Mr. Bryant submitted his Memorandum to the Local Government through the Inspector-General of Forests, who, while agreeing generally to the proposed classification and treatment, was unable to recommend that these should be brought into force at once, and advised that in each Circle or Division suitable areas of sufficient size should be selected, where the effects of the abandonment of fire protection could be carefully watched and the system extended from year to year, if the results justified such action. These recommendations were accepted by the Local Government and the necessary orders were issued in October, 1907. Subsequent to this, there is nothing of particular importance to note, for the Burma Conference of 1910 does not appear to have paid very much attention to this important subject, confining itself to passing a resolution that fire protection in plantations is ordinarily unnecessary after ten years.

In 1907-8, when the orders referred to above were issued, fire protection was in force over 7327 square miles. In 1911-12 the area over which the protection was attempted amounted to 6750 square miles. In other words, there has been a reduction of 10 per cent which, though it may be regarded as a start, can hardly be said to prove the general adoption of the views set forth by Mr. Beadon-Bryant in 1907."

Blanford, Conservator of the Working Plans Circle (in a Memorandum dated 30th March, 1925, to the author), brings the matter up to date in the following:

"Sir George Hart recommended that the classification advocated by Mr. Beadon-Bryant should be carried out over every Forest Division in Burma and that subject to certain reservations fire protection should be abandoned in class (a), i.e. forests in which the valuable species are found with an undergrowth of dense periodically or gregariously flowering bamboos, as well as forests of a moist evergreen nature where, with the aid of fire protection, evergreen is encroaching on the teak. He did not advocate that the abandonment of fire