I

CHAPTER XXIII

A FEW REFLECTIONS AND AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT

N looking back through the pages of this history of the Forests of India there are several reflections which would appear to be of sufficient interest to call for a few remarks. It has been said on more than one occasion that the British race have been more active in destroying forests than any other nation-a charge easily made but difficult to prove. Moreover, one which requires considerably more enquiry than has usually been accorded to it. It may be admitted that the British race has been responsible for very heavy fellings in the primeval forests of the world throughout the last hundred years or more. But these fellings (not always carried out by the British) have for the most part-in the Old World at any rate-been made to supply some definite requirement, the construction of ships, buildings, bridges, railways, and so forth; in other words, to provide for the needs of a developing civilised nation. The old ignorant destruction of earlier centuries in Europe, or in the New World in the past century, has not usually been practised by the British. To supply the markets species which had acquired a value were sought for and exploited without reference to the continued maintenance of the forests, as, e.g. mahogany, teak, the soft woods, and so forth. Accessible forests of these species were speedily cleared of the valuable species or cut out. In so far as this represents forest destruction the British have destroyed forests during the past century or so, or have been a consenting party to such devastation. In India the examples of the fine Malabar and Tenasserim Teak forests which were cut out early in the past century, and the accessible deodar areas in the middle of the century, furnish cases in point.

A study of the whole of the available history of the Indian Forests will, however, at once exonerate the British from the charge of intentional mismanagement and neglect. The evidence, when carefully sifted, appears to show that the value

of certain timber species of trees and other products had long been known in the country prior to the arrival of the British. That in some instances the Indian rulers farmed or worked the forests for these species themselves—often ignorantly or wastefully, as, e.g. the Teak forests under the Burman kings; but, on occasions, with knowledge, as in the case of Tippoo Sahib in Mysore and the astute old Nilambur Raja of Conolly's day. In the north the Gurkhas were well aware of the value of the sâl forests and may be said to have taken full advantage of our abysmal ignorance at the time of all pertaining to forestry matters. For the rest, forest property was regarded from very much the same viewpoint by the people as had been the case in England in the times of the Saxon and Norman kings-with, in India, the addition of the habits of, firstly, annually firing the forests in the dry season, undertaken by the agricultural population throughout the country; and, secondly, the widespread practice of shifting cultivation in the forest areas by the nomadic forest tribes.

It is possible to trace, in these volumes, three periods in the consideration and treatment accorded to the State forest property in India.

Previous to the time at which we commenced to rule over the major part of the country the demand for Indian timbers was small, both within and without the country. The Arab trade in teak had existed for centuries, but the Arab fleet consisted of comparatively small vessels, as is the case at the present day, and has a definite limit to the amount of timber annually required, a practical point in economics which is becoming evident to the Divisional Officer at Nilambur. Within the country the population for the most part used smallsized timbers, only Burma proving an exception to the rule. A study of Indian history would seem to indicate that in earlier times large timbers were also used for constructional purposes, but the records extant are scanty; and the climate and white ants quickly caused the disappearance of such erections, if they did exist, after their sacking by a fresh invasion of conquerors. The advent of the British resulted in a considerable demand for large-sized timbers, practically confined to teak at the outset, either for export, for Admiralty purposes, or for use in the dockyards in India and by the Public Works for the construction of the numerous Government buildings, cantonments, etc., which a settled administration of the country rendered necessary. Two other timbers were

called upon to furnish these supplies, the sâl and the deodar. But even in the unrestricted fellings practised one factor stands out in strong relief. The records clearly indicate that officials in the country and at home were not unmindful of the necessity of replacing the forest on areas cut over. The wish, even the intention, was there. It was merely the knowledge of how to carry out the desire that was absent. The very extensive correspondence which passed between the three Governments of Bengal, Madras and Bombay and the East India Company Directors affords incontrovertible evidence of this contention.

The second period, when a statesmanlike administration of the forests began to make its appearance, opened with Lord Dalhousie's proclamation in connection with the Pegu Forests in 1855, which has been termed the Charter of the Indian Forests. This was shortly followed by the appointment of Brandis as Superintendent of these forests. The first introduction of forest conservancy dawned in India. Up to this time both Government and people, with the exception of some small attempts on the part of the former to replace the cut forests by plantings and sowings, had been mere users of the forests. The first attempts at confining exploitation to the possibility of the forests being worked and the beginnings of protection were now introduced. Progress under the first of these heads was limited by a very small and untrained staff, when the magnitude of the undertaking is taken into account; under the second, by the fact that it ran counter to the habits of the people, practised and enjoyed unchecked through past centuries. The work of this second period involved the selection of the forests to be reserved or protected for State purposes, under one designation or another, to definitely restricting shifting cultivation, to the introduction of an unknown and incomprehensible (to the people) feature of the new administration in the form of fire protection, and, lastly, as difficult, the attempted gradual restriction or settlement of the unchecked grazing of the ever-increasing herds of the population on the country-side, which threatened the accessible forests with extinction and hindered the introduction of Working Plans. The gradual increase in the numbers of a trained staff enabled these problems to be dealt with on an increasing scale during the later years of the last century.

The third period may be roughly dated from 1905-6. Two important factors which, so far as the historian can at present offer an opinion, appear to have had a far-reaching influence

on modern forest progress in India, had their origin in these years.

The first was the transfer of the education of the Indian forest probationer to the University, the second the inauguration of the Research Institute. These two factors appear to be mutually interdependent. Few would argue against the contention that the officers who were trained on the Continent of Europe and at Cooper's Hill were better qualified for their work than the untrained men, their predecessors, although each in their turn carried out invaluable work. But scientific conservancy and the introduction of the Working Plan only became possible and made a real advance when the first trained men began to grasp the helm, having under them as assistants a trained staff.)

Similarly, a study of the position to which scientific forest conservancy has attained would seem to indicate that the advent of the young officer holding a University degree has proved an advantage of no mean importance to forestry in India. Elsewhere in this volume I have commented upon this factor; the further I went on my tour in India in 1925 the more convincing it appeared to become. A score of years hence proved facts will be in existence from which obvious conclusions will be derivable; but it would appear to be already apparent that no central isolated school of forestry could have produced the type of Forest Officer who is now reaching administrative rank and who has so largely helped in the striking advance in the practice of scientific forestry in all its aspects which the last decade and a half has witnessed. If he has been fortunate it has been due to the administrative progress which led to his advent on the scene coinciding with the birth of the Forest Research Institute.

As a result of my study of the present position of Forestry in India I have definitely made the statement that in some respects, and in some Provinces, India can show as good and efficient examples of forest management as are to be found in those European countries famed for their scientific forest conservancy. I believe this to be true. But in a country so extensive, where its Forest Department is responsible for areas of a size no Forest Department has ever before attempted to scientifically conserve, the Forest Officer is only at the commencement of a gigantic task. His position in 1925 differs from that of his confrère of 1905 in that the officer of 1925 has found his feet. If I may be permitted the poetic licence (the

thought occurred to me in India), with a smile on the lips and serious eyes he is cajoling that retiring lady, Dame Nature, to yield up some of those sylvicultural and other secrets, the assimilation of which is imperative if the Forest Estate of fifty years hence is to be a worthy monument to his work. Only the highest trained staff willing to carry on the example of unflinching hard work set by the men of the past will enable this possibility to become a certainty.

An eminent scientist and naturalist, of great age, recently wrote: "First among the proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out, stands that which says, 'It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.' The proverb speaks as though there were sometimes a direct intention of Nature to puzzle and mystify the student, to put him on his mettle in dealing with the intricacy of the problems. There is the playfulness of a riddle propounded, the seriousness of an education designed."

AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Owing to considerations of space it has not proved possible in the previous pages to fully acknowledge the great assistance accorded to me by Forest Officers during my visit to India in 1925 and tour round the Provinces. Both at the headquarters and out in the forest divisions I was met and shown round by the officers in charge and the various details of present management and of the progress achieved were explained to me. My acknowledgments are due to the following:

of

Headquarters, Government of India.-Up at Simla at the close my tour I had some interesting conversations with Mr. J. W. Bhore, C.I.E., C.B.E., I.C.S., Secretary Department of Education, Health and Lands, bearing upon points of policy then under consideration. With the assistance of Sir Peter Clutterbuck, C.I.E., C.B.E., Inspector-General of Forests, which has been ungrudging throughout, I was able to place myself au fait with the existing position and to obtain information upon matters which had cropped up or had appeared to demand enlightenment during my tour round the country. To the Superintendent of his Office I am also indebted for lucid extracts from important files,