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urgently in need of examination owing to the possibility of commencing exploitation work within them. The whole of this area had recently been topographically surveyed by the Survey of India and 1-inch maps were available. In the air operations in Tenasserim, therefore, the stock-mapping of the forest was the primary and only object, whereas in the Irrawaddy Delta the topographical mapping of an unsurveyed area was the chief object, the stock-mapping being achieved simultaneously.

The contract was again made with Mr. Kemp. The detailed Report of this survey is in the press. Whilst in Rangoon, in February, 1925, I was given to understand that, as had been anticipated, photography was not yielding sufficiently detailed results. These forests are situated in hilly country with deep valleys, the nature of the growth in the latter not being brought out sufficiently strongly to be recognisable. Some 250 miles, I believe, had been photographed and then Mr. Scott, who was in charge, decided to devote the extra flying time which would be available under the contract (613 square miles were contracted for by photography) to aerial stock-mapping. The whole of this was undertaken by Mr. Robbins, Scott checking at times. By flying at a fairly low elevation considerable success was achieved in this manner.

In a letter received from the Conservator, Working Plans Circle, accompanied by a photo mosaic, he gives details of the types of forest ascertained from the photographs which are briefly summarized below:

The types of forest found in this region are: (1) Giant evergreen characterized by the presence of Swintonia floribunda with masses of wathabut bamboo (Neohauseana Helferi), canes and evergreen shrubs occupying steep slopes and small feeders. (2) Sub-evergreen, this is not constant and varies from a type resembling giant evergreen with smaller trees to a moist deciduous forest type with fewer bamboos. (3) Moist deciduous characterized by Waba bamboo (Oxytenanthera nigrociliata). The species found are Xylia dolabriformis, Careya arborea, Dillenia sp. and Homalium tomentosum. A common feature is open grassy blanks. (4) Dry deciduous forest occurs on a few ridges-Dipterocarpus obtusifolius of poor quality with an undergrowth of grass and wild toddy palm is characteristic of the type. (5) Tidal forest characterized by Heritiera, Carapa, Rhizophora Bruginera. (6) Areas of taungya cuttings.

Scott and Robbins spent some time before the commencement of the actual flying operations in examining various portions of the area from the ground with a view to describing the different types of forest. Some useful exploration work was undertaken and a number of types described and determined. This preliminary work is dealt with in Burma Forest Bulletin No. 14 (1925).

The results of the aerial survey are summarized as follows: A stock map of some 15,178 square miles of forests, in difficult mountainous country, showing the distribution of thirteen different types of forest, has been obtained in one season at a cost of Rs.5.5 per square mile. It is estimated that it would have taken twenty years and cost at least Rs.15 per square mile to have examined the same area from the ground with sufficient thoroughness to have produced a stock-map on the same lines. A comparison of the reconnaissance map with the stock-map actually prepared on the ground during the past season in the Heinze and Kaleinaung Reserves by the Working Plans party under Mr. H. C. Smith show that they agree in essentials, and the differences in detail are so unimportant as to be negligible. It is not contended that the aerial stockmapping method will supplant the ground one for Working Plans. The broad lines of the maps produced by the former method are eminently suited for preliminary surveys, or for reservation proposals, but have not the accuracy of detail for a scientific plan of management. They also provide immediate data as to the extent of shifting cultivation being carried out. A similar survey of the Chittagong Hill Tracts might be a possibility!

It will be admitted that this new departure, whilst being a direct outcome of possibilities, and the extraordinary advance in aerial science, which the Great War brought about, reflects the greatest credit on the Department in Burma. Its officers were quick to realize the value to which the new development might be turned in providing them, not only with surveys, but stock maps which in the ordinary course of work on the ground would have taken many years to prepare.

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

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