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slowly in the Province. In 1884-5 the area of forests under the Department and District Officers was 9595 square miles, of which 2342 square miles were Reserves, 863 square miles Protected and 6390 square miles District Forests. Forest Officers were few, and the local rules for the District Forests were working well. Fire protection, which had been troublesome, showed a marked improvement, the percentage of failures having fallen from 29 to 5 per cent. The cost, however, Rs.25 per square mile, was still very high and would remain so until, as the Inspector-General remarked, "larger areas are fire protected and until the vast areas of savannah land outside the Reserves have been brought under cultivation or become otherwise less liable to burn." In 1885-6 the Inspector-General ("Rev. of For. Administr.") wrote: "The area of Reserves amounts as yet to only 5 per cent of the country. Under present circumstances this might be sufficient, but the time is rapidly approaching when the Province will be opened out by railways and will be much more extensively cultivated than it is now. It is accordingly essential that the area of Reserves should be largely increased in order to meet future requirements." Two years later considerable additions had been made to the Reserves, and the Inspector-General, remarking upon the fact, said: "The permanently sanctioned Protective Establishment in the Assam Forest Department is small and has to be strengthened annually by a large temporary establishment "-always an unsatisfactory expedient and a deterrent to real progress. In 1893-4 Hill, Acting InspectorGeneral, again remarked upon the slowness with which reservation was proceeding. In spite of, or perhaps by reason of, the large area of forests in Assam, the people were slow in realizing the reason for fire protection. In alluding to the bad year experienced in 1891-2, Ribbentrop ascribes the success of natural reproduction in the Province almost entirely to efficient fire protection, and remarks: "An interesting feature is the encroachment of the sâl on the open grass plains adjoining forests of this species in the Garo Hills and in Goalpara. In the latter district, also, the sâl is gradually displacing the dry deciduous forest."

The total area of the Charduar Rubber Plantation had increased to 1168 acres by 1885, but the sum received from the Rubber Mehals showed a decrease of Rs.20,660 as compared with Rs.36,700 the previous year. In 1888-9 the following appeared in the Inspector-General's "Review of Forest

Administration" under 'Sowing and Planting': "The greatest amount of success was obtained in the rubber plantation (Charduar) which was extended by 74 acres, and experimental sowings of some of the more valuable Assam timber trees were continued with the view of eventually improving the composition of the forests. The efforts made to induce the people to grow these trees with their crops in jhumed areas were not on the whole successful. These efforts will, however, it is hoped, be persevered in, as, owing to the scarcity of labour in Assam, there are at present no other means by which the vast areas of unreserved forest in the Province can be improved on a large scale, or the injury done by jhuming be counterbalanced." Before the close of the century it was reported that some progress had been made in persuading the jhumers to rear tree crops on their jhums. But the method made but slow progress in Assam.

The Charduar Rubber Plantation experienced some vicissitudes in policy. At one time the extension was stopped. By 1891-2 the total expenditure on the plantation from formation amounted to about Rs.1,22,000, and the Government of India expressed the opinion that latterly some avoidable wasteful expenditure had been incurred. With the decrease of the natural rubber in the forests the Charduar extensions were proceeded with.

In a backward Province like Assam, where forestry was a new institution, it was not probable that the revenue would increase very rapidly. The receipts for 1883-4 and 1884-5 were, respectively, Rs.2,11,445 and Rs.1,80,403, and the expenses, Rs.1,99,562 and Rs.1,97,669, showing a deficit for the latter year. Matters gradually improved, however, and in 1889-90 the receipts were Rs.3,79,498 and the expenditure Rs.2,57,129. On this satisfactory result the InspectorGeneral remarked: "The gross revenue and the surplus were the highest yet realized in Assam; the surplus for the previous year, which until then was the highest recorded, being only Rs.93,977 (as against Rs.1,22,269 in 1889-90), while the average surplus for the ten years 1879-80 to 1888-9 amounted to Rs.25,000. This satisfactory improvement in the financial working in recent years can, in great measure, be attributed to the development of the local and export trade in timber, but, in so far as it is the result of effective administration, is also creditable to the forest staff." The receipts had dropped to Rs.3,36,129 in 1891–2, and had been lower still the preceding

year. A duty had, however, been recently introduced on cutch, a product of Acacia Catechu. In the following year the sum realized from this source amounted to Rs.49,600 and the annual revenue was Rs.3,82,830. During the last decade of the century the revenue rose, and in 1899-1900 it amounted to Rs.5,68,100 (the average for the preceding five years having been Rs.4,15,912). The surplus for this year was Rs.2,10,960, the average for the previous quinquennium having been Rs.1,29,042. It will be remembered that it was in 1891 that a special Forest Regulation was passed for Assam to replace the Indian Forest Act, which had been found unsuitable (II, p. 474).

Owing to the late inauguration of a Department to administer the Assam Forests, it was to be expected that in the early years progress in Working Plans would be slow. But the record under this head for the period under review is lamentable. There were no sanctioned Working Plans in force in 1888-9. In the following year the survey of the important sâl forests of the Goalpara District was commenced by the Forest Survey Branch. In Goalpara the preliminary work of triangulation and traversing was carried out, the former over 94 square miles, and the latter over 439 square miles. This work was resumed the following year. An area of 180 square miles was topographically surveyed and a record of the distribution of the forests and the quality of the soil was prepared. Triangulation and traverse work were also continued. Meanwhile, in 1889-90, the special Working Plans Staff was employed in Goalpara in connection with the survey of the sâl-bearing tract and in classifying the forest growth in accordance with the recommendations contained in the Inspection Report of the Inspector-General and in the enumeration of sample plots. In the following year the Working Plan Party continued the work of classification of the growing stock and in opening compartment lines, 422 square miles being examined. But this type of work was not understood by the staff of the time, as the following extract from the Inspector-General's Annual Review for 1891-2 clearly shows: "Work was restricted, as in previous years, to the Goalpara Sâl Forests. The collection of material for the preparation of this plan was commenced in 1888-9 and has since proceeded almost uninterruptedly, at an expenditure, exclusive of the cost of the Forest Survey, but including the pay of the officers employed thereon, probably already in excess of Rs.50,000. A preliminary Report on the lines which

it is proposed the Working Plan shall take was submitted in April, 1893. The Government of India, when reviewing the Conservator's Report for the year, drew attention to the high expenditure incurred on this plan and to the fact that the high cost of the plans prepared in previous years had been decidedly out of proportion to the results achieved. There are good grounds for this assertion, since the few Working Plans already sanctioned in the Province have been costly failures. Money and time have been wasted in unnecessary elaboration, particularly on the detailed enumeration surveys, which have been made with a view of securing that the forests should not be overworked. But . . . overworking was not likely, under any circumstances, to take place in the localities considered; and, in fact, some of the forests for which costly plans have been drawn up, have proved unworkable, for the present at least." The Goalpara Plan was completed in 1893-4 and sanctioned in the following year. Deviations from its provisions had already taken place. It was at this time the only plan in the Province.

In 1896-7, of the total area of 3682 square miles of Reserves 533 square miles only were under Working Plans. Of this area 522 square miles were in Goalpara, where hitherto it had not been found possible to work out the number of trees prescribed under the plan. The only new work of the year was the preparation of a scheme, auxiliary to the Goalpara Plan, to regulate the removal of trees other than sâl. This scheme subsequently received sanction. In 1899-1900 the total area of forest under the Department was 20,061 square miles, comprising 3609 square miles of Reserves and 16,452 square miles of Unclassed Forest, or 44.2 per cent of the total area of the Province. Of this area 533 square miles of Reserves were under Working Plans at the close of the century. Of the remaining 19,528 square miles the 16,452 square miles of Unclassed Forest did not require Working Plans.

PART II

AND

THE GENERAL PROGRESS OF FOREST CONSERVANCY AND THE INAUGURATION OF FOREST RESEARCH WORK IN INDIA BURMA, 1901-25. THE EFFECTS OF THE GREAT WAR AND OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS ON FOREST POLICY

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