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was greatly facilitated by the more settled state of the country. The staff of the Department was nearly at the sanctioned strength, and the Government of India considered that it should be possible to spare one or more officers for the exploration of the forests on the drainage system of the Salween River. It will be recognized that the annexation had thrown an enormous amount of additional work on the Burma Forest Staff since from the area of forests provisionally gazetted as protected" the Reserves of the future had to be selected, demarcated and settled. By 1890-1 an area of 16,000 square miles of forest had been examined since the annexation, with a view to selection of Reserves; this exploration had clearly indicated the wasteful manner in which the forests had been worked previous to the conquest, and had strengthened Ribbentrop's arguments in tendering the advice that no leases for exploitation should be given out without the guarantee of previous selection and girdling of the trees by the Department. Upper Burma had at first been formed into one Forest Circle with a Conservator in charge. In 1892-3 it became necessary to divide the charge, and two Circles were formed, the Eastern and Western, with headquarters in each case at Mandalay. Reservation work had got well into its stride, 1307 square miles having been reserved during the year. The total area of Reserves in the Province at the end of the year was 7407 square miles, with, in addition, 652 square miles of Karen areas. In 1895-6 the Reserves and taungya areas in Pegu and Tenasserim amounted to 7378 square miles, and in Upper Burma the area was 5439 square miles. At the close of the year 2128 square miles in Upper Burma and 1348 in Lower Burma were undergoing settlement, and other proposals were under consideration, so that, says the Government of India, "a large addition to the area of Reserved Forests, particularly in Burma, may shortly be expected," In order to elucidate the history of the progress of the Department it is necessary to realize that not only in Burma but in most of the other Provinces of India the same class of work was in progress -even in such advanced Provinces as the N.W.P. and Oudh. In this same year, e.g. in the Oudh Circle, the records of concessions were completed for Kheri and Bahraich, and were sanctioned by Government. In some cases such settlement work had been previously carried out, but so ineffectively that it had to be redone. In the majority it had never been attempted. Thus we find the staff still deeply engaged with

this essential work up to the end of the century. Although much remained, the bulk of this work had been completed by 1900, and the Forest Officer was free to devote his attention to his real professional duties, with results which will be described in the next part. In the last few years of the century Working Plans parties were busy at work.

The total area of forests under the Department in Burma was 89,417 square miles in 1899-1900, of which 17,154 square miles were Reserves (including 865 square miles of taungya areas) and 72,263 square miles of Unclassed State Forests, or 55:28 per cent of the total area of the Province. The estimated area of the unclassed forests of Burma was included in the Inspector-General's Annual Review of Forest Administration for 1899-1900 for the first time," as these areas and their out-turn now find their place regularly in the returns of the Department." The provisions of Chapter IV of the Burma Forest Act and of the Upper Burma Forest Regulations applied to this type of forest. In 1900 an area of 2883 square miles was either under the provisions of Working Plans or plans were under preparation. A heavy task in this connection still remained to be undertaken by the Department.

The gross out-turn of the forests for 1899-1900 was as follows:

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The Inspector-General's Review has the following remarks upon the above statement: "The reasons for the general falling off in the out-turn are not very clearly explained, but in the Pegu Circle departmental operations were hampered by the mortality amongst elephants due to an outbreak of anthrax, and in the Southern Circle the restricted operations of the Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation in the Pyinmana Forests account for a considerable decrease. The working of

the forests under leases, and based on Working Plans causes a considerable decrease in the output where forests have been over-exploited in the past, and in some districts the unclassed forests have been denuded of teak. The number of teak trees girdled was 29,270, of which 12,702 were in the Pegu Circle and 8406 in the Tenasserim Circle. The total out-turn of teak timber was 274,814 tons, of which 164,847 tons were extracted by lessees in the Northern and Southern Circles, including 60,022 tons from the Pyinmana Forests." There was an increase in the out-turn of cutch from the unclassed forests of the Pegu Circle (9116 tons), but a considerable decrease in the Southern Circle.

The revenue for the year (1899-1900) amounted to Rs.78,12,050, the preceding five years' annual average being Rs.66,15,542. The surplus was Rs.53,64,610, the preceding five years' annual average having been Rs.44,94,900. The proportion of surplus to gross revenue amounted to the large figure of 68.7 per cent. Progress in Burma was inevitably delayed by the short-sighted policy shown in devoting so small a fund to the amelioration of the forests, a first necessity of which was the maintenance of an adequate staff.

The Andamans Forests.

The working of the forests of the Andaman Islands was commenced in the early part of the period here considered. The exploitation was unregulated and no Working Plan was in force. The forests are of a tropical virgin character, in which progress was only possible by hewing out a path and the collecting of information on the growing stock proved difficult. The richest and most easily worked areas were heavily exploited for padauk, this being the saleable species. The supply, however, exceeded the demand, and the forest had suffered no harm. No steps had been taken to regenerate the areas exploited, the sylviculture of the species being little understood. The Deputy Conservator in charge was directly under the Inspector-General of Forests, but periodical inspections were carried out by a Conservator from Burma. The material was sold either in log or converted form. The conversion was undertaken in the Chatham Sawmills, which belonged to the Settlement, and after various vicissitudes, were managed by the Forest Department. Towards the end of the century the foreign demand for padauk timber was rising.

CHAPTER IV

THE PROGRESS OF FOREST ADMINISTRATION IN THE

CENTRAL PROVINCES AND BERAR, 1871-1900

HE introduction of Forest Protection and Administration in the Central Provinces commenced by Pearson and his able Assistant, Forsyth, was well carried on by Captain Doveton, who had succeeded Pearson as Conservator, when the latter was transferred to the North West Provinces (II, p. 305). During the period here under review, visits of inspection to the Provinces were made by three Inspectors-General-Brandis, Schlich and Ribbentrop-and their Reports give a clear insight into the lines upon which the administration was developed.

Brandis visited a portion of the forests in 1876 and again in 1877. The areas he inspected were the chief Reserves, as then constituted, in the Seoni, Balaghat, Mandla, Damoh and Jubbulpur Districts, the remaining Reserves being situated in the Districts of Chanda, Wardha, Betul, Nimar and Hoshangabad. He was accompanied throughout the tour by Mr. A. Smythies, an Assistant Conservator, whilst the Conservator was with him during the chief part of his visit.

The work of demarcating the Reserves was still proceeding, and it was contemplated that additional areas should be selected. The Reserves already demarcated were mostly situated in remote localities, at a considerable distance from the centres of consumption and from the existing main lines of communication; and with the exception of the Banjar Forest they were said to be extremely poor in mature timber and other marketable produce. The table on p. 81 shows the areas of reserved and unreserved forest in the districts visited by Brandis as they stood in 1874-5.

It was evident that a great deal remained to be done to add to the area of the Reserved Forests. Moreover, Brandis pointed out that the unreserved forests could not be depended upon to furnish the country permanently with wood, bamboos, grass

and other forest produce. The so-called unreserved forests were merely the excess waste lands from which, at the time of the settlement, it was understood tracts would be taken up for cultivation; and, as a matter of fact, fields and villages had been established within their limits. Brandis showed that it was not contemplated, nor would it be possible, to improve the condition and growing stock in the unreserved forests which were entirely unprotected; and though an effort had been made, with some success, in Damoh to protect a part of them from fire, yet under existing methods ultimate improvement of the areas could not be expected save by taking up further tracts and constituting them Reserves. He indicated areas in the districts which he visited, from which he considered additional Reserves should be constituted. The main consideration in their selection would be that the areas should

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consist of good forest soil, though he added the proviso that forests on poor soil may yet be valuable and worth maintaining and improving as forest Reserves if situated near a line of railway or offering facilities for the export of their produce." The weak points in the procedure, with reference to the formation of Reserves and Forest Administration generally as envisaged at this period, lay firstly, in an inadequate appreciation of the possibilities of development in spite of the almost incredible progress in the opening-out of the Province which had taken place under the administration of Sir R. Temple, the first Chief Commissioner; and, secondly, in the policy, which Brandis now advised, of separating the forests into two categories, the Reserves (the areas reserved under the Forest Law then in force) which were to be solely under the administration of the Forest Department, and the unreserved

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