"

plans for their own divisions, as was done in the North-West Provinces, Oudh and Bengal. The time," they said, "has gone by when the preparation of Working Plans can lightly be considered as a labour to devolve mainly upon a special agency employed for that purpose." A somewhat startling and retrograde pronouncement, which does not appear to have elicited a remonstrance from the Inspector-General.

In 1895-6 Working Plans were under preparation for 1841 square miles. A plan for the Simla Catchment Area was completed and a plan for the Simla Municipal Forests was commenced.

The total area of forest under the control of the Department in 1899-1900 was as follows: Reserves, 2891 square miles (343 square miles of leased forests); Protected, 2473 square miles; Unclassed, 3837 square miles. Total, 9201 square miles or 8.30 per cent of the total area of the Province.

The revenue for 1899-1900 amounted to Rs.14,00,770 (quinquennial average for the preceding five years, Rs. 11,39,510) and the surplus to Rs.1,89,310, the preceding five-year average being Rs.3,89,286.

Of the area of 9201 square miles controlled by the Department in 1899-1900 2504 square miles (including 6 square miles of the Simla Municipal and Catchment Area) were under sanctioned Working Plans, and plans for 128 square miles were sanctioned during the year. An area of 5172 square miles was still without Working Plans.

In view of developments to be recorded in a later part the following is worthy of record. In their review of the 1897-8 Punjab Annual Forest Report the Government of India remarked: "It appears that 9804 deodar trees and 629 pines and other trees were extracted during the year, as against 9564 deodar and 759 pines in the previous year, so that the trade in trees other than deodar is not increasing. Nor is it possible that it will do so until some means of rendering the wood of the various pines more durable and more fitted for railway sleepers becomes a practical possibility. The Conservator should be asked to consider the question and to bring it forward in his next report." The following year the Inspector-General's Review of Forest Administration contains the Conservator's reply. After referring to the efforts being made to increase the utilization of the pine forests, the Conservator remarks: "With regard to the impregnation of pine timber a separate Report has been furnished. It is impossible, with the present reduced

controlling staff, to launch out into new enterprises of such magnitude. If the Railway Management or private firms would undertake the establishment of one or more centrally placed factories the Forest Department and other private proprietors could easily supply timber enough to keep the factories going." Up to a point the Conservator was right. But the initiative did not rest with him, but with the Inspector-General of Forests, as this history will clearly demonstrate.

BALUCHISTAN

The question of reserving forests in Baluchistan was only first given effect to in 1880-1. Eight square miles of District Forests were formed, the revenue and expenditure of the first five years averaging about Rs.9,774 and Rs.15,247, the second year only showing a surplus of Rs.934. The urgent need for providing at least for fuel supplies, however, made a surplus a secondary consideration. In his 1885-6 Review of Forest Administration the Inspector-General remarked: "A Forest Law for Baluchistan, providing for the constitution of permanent forest estates, received the sanction of the Government of India during the year; but as yet no forest areas have been reserved under its clauses, and the permanency of a supply of forest produce is no nearer than it was the day the Province was annexed." By 1888-9 the area of forest, now shown as "Unclassed State," had increased to 21 square miles, including two blocks of juniper (Juniperus macropoda) forest near Ziarat, a block of 9 square miles on the Zarghin and 5 square miles in the Pishin Plain, a few miles from Quetta. Proposals to take up further areas were given effect to in 1890-1, powers under the Act being used for the first time to constitute regular Reserves. At the close of the year 78 square miles were under the Department. Notifications under the Acts were also issued, reserving certain classes of trees and providing generally for the working of the regulations, which were apparently being introduced without causing friction between the Department and the people. In the following year the Thalli Reserve was constituted (25 square miles), the total area amounting to 106 square miles. The chief breaches of the Forest Law were due to illicit grazing, but the Deputy Conservator stated that the introduction of the new protective rules had been received by the country people with equanimity.

At this period the total out-turn of timber and fuel amounted to 537,172 cubic feet, of which only 4000 cubic feet was timber.

The extraction of fuel had largely increased. The receipts were Rs.19,030 and the expenditure Rs.55,620. A Deputy Conservator was in charge, and his salary would bulk largely in the charges which were increased that year owing to the transfer of the irrigated Shebo plantation from the Military to the Forest Department.

Between 1892-5 some 69 square miles were added to the forest area, 19 square miles being added to the juniper area under the Department. The other forests were at Kach Mangi (15 square miles), Zarghin (6 square miles), Mari Chak (3 square miles), Surghond (25 square miles) and Khushdilkhan (1 square mile); the total forest area now amounting to 175 square miles. The whole of this area was settled Reserved Forests. Plantation work had been undertaken, some of it without great success. During 1896-7 the plantations at Shibu and Khusdil, which had proved failures, were disforested, thus reducing the area of Reserves by 5 square miles. The acreage of regular plantations in 1900 amounted to thirty-three only. The receipts and expenditure for the three years 1894-5 to 1896-7 were as follows: Rs.15,191, Rs.14,751, Rs.15,942 and Rs.44,548, Rs.36,382, Rs.28,478. The Agent to the GovernorGeneral (Review on Forest Report) remarks: "The results of the year under report are better than was anticipated and reflect credit on the Forest Officer. The decrease in the deficits is encouraging." In the Zhob Valley an expenditure of Rs.980 was incurred on Forest Conservancy, whilst the revenue realized, almost entirely royalty on wood, amounted to Rs.4,142.

By the close of the century the area of Reserves amounted to 205 square miles, and further reservation projects were under consideration but were deferred owing to scarcity and famine, which afflicted Western India at the time. The revenue for 1899-1900 was Rs.17,060 and the deficit to Rs.11,620. The out-turn of timber was 12,705 cubic feet, and of firewood 450,012 cubic feet. In this connection the Agent to the Governor-General wrote: "The drain on the Baluchistan Forests for firewood continues to present a very serious problem. The Reports for the past few years clearly show that natural and artificial reproduction cannot be reckoned upon to meet the large consumption, and this seems to be chiefly due to the fact that only the trees which thrive naturally in the inhospitable climate of Baluchistan are of extremely slow growth. The drain is especially marked in the unclassed forests, and, as shown in the Report under review, the local supply

at the present rate of consumption can only be expected to last for a few years. The best method to prevent its total exhaustion appears to be to restrict the local cuttings and import firewood from the Sind Forests, from which, according to the Deputy Conservator's estimates, it can be landed in Quetta at an accessible rate."

CHAPTER VII

PROGRESS OF FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN THE NORTH-WEST

I

PROVINCES AND OUDH, 1871-1900

THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES

N the detailed account of the introduction of forest conservancy into the North-West Provinces (now called the United Provinces), given in previous chapters (II, Chaps. VIII, IX), it was shown that the Authorities of the Province were slow to recognize the necessity of placing this branch of administration on a proper basis. The neighbouring Province of Oudh, then separate from the North-West Provinces, had reached a far higher degree of organization by 1871 (Chap. x).

In Volume II (pp. 283, 309) the plans being undertaken to supply sleepers for the new railway construction taking place in Northern India were discussed. This work was well in hand at the beginning of the period here reviewed. The following extract from the Inspector-General's (Pearson was officiating) Review of Forest Administration, 1870-71, is of interest: "The Rajputana Railway now under construction, which will run from Delhi and Agra to the Sambhar Lake, draws its principal supply of sleepers from the North-West deodar forests. Its total length, as at present sanctioned, is about 400 miles, for which 800,000 sleepers are ordered; of this number 120,000 are required at Delhi, and the remainder at Agra; about 84,000 have been already delivered at Delhi, and 150,000 more are lying sawn up in the Tons Forests ready to be floated down in the spring, when the melting of the snow has filled the river. Timber for 200,000 more from the Bhagiratti Forests is now in the Dun, which will be sawn up, and the sleepers sent to Agra during the present cold weather . . . the Forest Department expect to deliver 300,000 sleepers (half coming from the Tons Forests, and the other half from the Bhagiratti) in 1872-3. The balance, or about 125,000, will probably be supplied from the sâl forests of Kumaun and Garhwal, where 80,000 sleepers are now being cut for this season's supply.