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THE FORESTS OF INDIA

CHAPTER I

FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY, MYSORE (TO 1881) AND COORG, 1871-1900

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T will be remembered that in his Despatch reviewing the Forest Report of the Madras Presidency for 1869-70 the Secretary of State (the Duke of Argyll) expressed the opinion that much more might be made out of the fine forests of the Presidency; and that of late years sound principles of conservancy had not made the progress which they should have done from the earlier start which Madras had had over the rest of India (Vol. II, p. 121). That friction existed between the Civil and Forest Officers was well known ; but it could scarcely fail to have been otherwise when the attitude of the Government and the Board of Revenue is taken into account. Matters did not improve during the next few years, as is ably shown in a clear exposition of the position, and the attitude respectively of the Government of India and the Government of the Presidency, contained in a "Memorandum on the demarcation of the Public Forests in the Madras Presidency" (15th August, 1878) by Brandis. The Governor of Madras at the time was the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos and he appears to have taken up the same non possumus attitude vis-à-vis the forestry question which he displayed towards the Government of India's recommendations during the great famine of 1876-8 (Vol. II, p. 459).

In his Memorandum Brandis, at the outset, strikes a different note-a far harsher note-than that which usually runs through his tactful Memoranda on forestry questions dealing with the Provinces, or even with the Presidency of Bombay, where matters at the period were far from presenting a roseate hue. But a perusal of this Memorandum quickly gives evidence of his reasons for assuming the attitude. With a knowledge

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of the previous history of the Madras Forestry question the reader is left with a feeling of amazement and incredulity at the position herein depicted. Brandis' opening paragraph tersely explains it. "For some years past a tendency appears to have prevailed in the Madras Presidency to give up the rights of the State in the forests, or at least not sufficiently to guard and protect them. A separate forest administration was organized as long ago as 1856; but while in the provinces under the Government of India and in the Bombay Presidency great progress has been made in separating the lands which are to be permanently maintained as forest, from the great mass of forest and waste lands, no progress on an adequate scale has been made in the Madras Presidency. The consequence has been that, with the increase of cattle and population in most parts of the Presidency, denudation has made most alarming progress, and this denudation has greatly aggravated the evil effects of the late years of drought and famine."

Whilst Cleghorn was on special duty in the Punjab he and Brandis had drawn up a joint Memorandum, which they submitted to the Government of India, urging the necessity of the early demarcation of Government and village forests in the Madras Presidency (Vol. I, p. 324). This document was transmitted to the Madras Government, but its suggestions had remained without effect. In September, 1869, the Government of India addressed a communication (No. 458-F., dated 29th September, 1869) to Madras, urging the early demarcation and efficient protection of extensive Forest Reserves, chiefly in order to secure a permanent supply of fuel for the Railways. Between that date and 1878 several remonstrances had been addressed by the Central Government to Madras on this question without effect. Four instances of the existing situation were dealt with in Brandis' Memorandum. The first was the case of the Tinnevelly Forests. In September, 1867, the Collector had addressed a letter to the Conservator pointing out that the river-irrigated section of the district was dependent on the continuous flow of water in the rivers rising on the Western Ghâts. This flow had notably decreased of late years, the decrease being attributed to the destruction of forests on the Ghâts, due to a great extent to the clearances of forest by coffee planters. The destruction of the fine timber forests had left the coffee gardens exposed and they were subsequently deserted. The agriculturists were now

unanimous in desiring that the remaining forests should be protected and as the Government had just sanctioned an additional anicut, at a cost of 7 lakhs of rupees, on one of the rivers it was necessary to do all that was possible to increase the water supply. He had issued certain conservancy rules and if the Conservator agreed to them was prepared to hand over charge of all the forests to the Conservator. Captain Beddome, the Deputy Conservator, had reported in detail on these areas. Cleghorn (Conservator) supported the Collector, and the Government of Madras issued orders on the subject (6th January, 1868) saying they "entirely concurred with Dr. Cleghorn that the present and perspective requirements of the southern districts ruled it eminently desirable that a skilled officer of standing should be appointed to the united range of the Madura and Tinnevelly Forests" and added that Captain Beddome's detailed report of his tour through the Tinnevelly Forests indicates an immense field for forest operations." Eight years later, in a report (February, 1876) on the Tinnevelly Forests, Beddome (who had succeeded Cleghorn as Conservator) remarked that Government had lately given up very large tracts of forest to certain zemindars in Tinnevelly "and that this would affect certain rights and privileges of the ryots." In reply to the demand of the Government of India for a report on this matter the Madras Government stated that as the result of subsequent enquiries by the Collector, all the zemindars of Tinnevelly had undoubtedly exercised some rights of ownership over the forests in their neighbourhood and had always asserted a claim to the primeval forests from times anterior to British rule. That the Madras Government, holding the opinion that the forests belonged to the zemindars, would try and obtain the lease of some of them. The Government of India (May, 1877) pointed out the discrepancy of the Government's attitude with the action taken in 1868, but to this letter no reply was vouchsafed. Beddome's report on the matter (3rd November, 1876) is interesting for the graphic description given of the coffee planters' methods. In this connection he wrote: "The planters who come over from Ceylon are now giving a very high price for land, and the whole mischief may be effected in a very short time. It must not be supposed that coffee is at all a permanent cultivation: we have only to look at the Sampajee ghât in Coorg, the Carcoor ghât and many other places in the Wynaad, the Sispara ghât on the Nilgiris, and parts of the Annamalais, to see at once that it is very often

very little better than the Kumri (shifting cultivation) of the hillmen. The list of deserted estates is, I fancy, much greater than that of estates kept up, and if it had not been that the price of coffee suddenly doubled itself a few years ago, there would be hardly any of the old estates kept up at all, at least in North Wynaad and Coorg; it pays a coffee planter to take up a tract of primeval moist forest on our mountain slopes for a few years; he gets bumper crops the 3rd, 4th and 5th years, but denudation of the soil goes on rapidly, and it does not pay him to keep it up many years. Can we restore the grand old forest with all its climatic influences? A thorny wilderness takes its place!" The Collector supported the Conservator's report. The Madras Government merely observed that the Government learnt with satisfaction that coffee planting was extending as mentioned by the Conservator!

The second instance was in the Cuddapah District. The Proceedings of the Madras Government for June, 1877, contained a detailed report by the Conservator on the forests of the district. The areas of forest and waste were valuable, the forest situated in four taluks was estimated at 1150 square miles, practically all the property of Government. The only conservancy as yet in existence consisted of five plantations of 1728 acres created at an outlay of Rs.41,730 and the demarcation of some small Reserves, aggregating 16,830 acres, at an expenditure of Rs.25,830; and in spite of the latter outlay these areas had been devastated by fire and grazing, their improvement under such conditions being hopeless. The Collector stated there was ample room to make large Reserves, which he suggested should be fenced with stone walls, and he endorsed the Conservator's remarks as to the devastation taking place in these forests and the ruthless destruction of young trees.

On these reports the Government of Madras observed "that with such vast areas of forest it may require further consideration whether the general conservancy of the forest area under the operation of a liberal enactment would not be more expedient and economical, whether in the interests of the State or the people, than the formation of close Reserves for fuel." Brandis wrote in the strongest terms on this matter and the Government of India addressed a letter to the Madras Government which eventually led to a scheme being sanctioned for taking up further Reserves in the district.

The third instance was the question of forming Reserves in the Coimbatore district, a large extent of hilly and thinly

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