網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

the forests; but it seems time now that Government should derive some increase of revenue from these operations.”

The only plantation Wood had yet recommended was near Fyzabad, which had apparently been commenced during the year. He had also had some young bamboos planted near Newal Khar, in the vicinity of the Sohelee River, which were doing well. He had formed this plantation with the idea that the bamboos would be useful for floating rafts of sâl timber (which would not itself float) down the river.

Wood had suggested a plan of eventually making use of traction engines (the forest and export lines are mostly in level or gently undulating country) to do the principal part of the carriage of timber and fuel. The Government of India approved of the suggestion and the Secretary of State (Argyll) had readily given his acquiescence, and had called upon Wood, who was at home on furlough, to carry out enquiries on this subject and submit his proposals on the construction of one suited to the Oudh Forests.

Describing the Oudh Forests as he found them a year or two after the close of this period, Sir S. Eardley Wilmot, in his Forest Life and Sport in India, says:

"At this time the protection of the forest from fire was giving much trouble. The people did not understand why they should abandon the immemorial custom of firing the forest in order to obtain a new growth of grass, or to make hunting and netting easier, or to restrict the raids of wild beasts on their crops or on their domestic animals. A system of broad' fire-lines,' or cleared rides, had been devised in order to locate any fire that might break out, and so permit of counter-firing, but the task at that time seemed almost hopeless; fires occurred almost every year, and their intensity and the consequent damage were in proportion to the period of successful protection that had preceded them; and, moreover, each such catastrophe cast a slur on the Forest Officer's administration, often undeservedly, for it was not sufficiently recognised that in the East education can but slowly affect the habits of the people. They had to be taught in practice the difference between the value of a burnt and an unburnt forest, and, as the population increased, it had to learn how the forest could be of importance to the community, where before it was an enemy to be fought by a few opponents who regarded fire as their strongest weapon. With patience and

perseverance this lesson has long since been learnt in the Oudh Forests, and the struggle is now transferred to other provinces where the Forest Officer is working as a pioneer in the van of civilisation, securing for the State a property which, when the country is settled, when landownership, so dear to the Eastern heart, is assured, and when the benefits of a regulated forest to an agricultural population are understood, will be perhaps more valued by the people themselves than even by their rulers; for the first have a personal and practical experience that forest products are indispensable to their welfare, while the others can only form an estimate of the inconveniences of strict Forest Conservancy."

Writing of Oudh and the North-West Provinces generally as he found it in the early 'seventies (and consequently as it was at this period) and of its forests and its communications Eardley Wilmot draws a picture between that time and the present worth reproducing, since it paints in unmistakable lines the great work which the British have carried out in India during the last half-century :

"I joined," he says, "the Indian Forest Service on December 3rd, 1873, at Lucknow. At that time the bridge over the Ganges at Cawnpore was not completed, and Oudh was a non-regulation Province; that is to say, it was administered by a Commission whose members had been recruited chiefly from military officers-men who were here, as in the Punjab, in the Central Provinces and in Burma, preparing the way for more settled rule, and, their work accomplished, were being replaced by members of the Indian Civil Service, men who had no experience of the sword, which in the East inevitably preceded the more mighty pen. It was but fifteen years since the great Mutiny had been quelled, and our companions were, some of them, men who had taken part in it; its memory had not been forgotten by the people, who could tell more than they cared to of the pacification of Oudh. The numerous extensions of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway were at that time not opened, and the Rohilkhand and Kumaun line was not commenced; the Bengal and North-Western Railway had not extended its operations towards the northern districts of the Province.

But good-fellowship resulted from isolation; the officials of the Province were all known to each other, and hospitality was the custom of the day. The ' dak-bungalow,' or travellers'

rest-house, at the headquarters station of the district would not have paid its way had it been dependent on the visits of Government officials, who went, as a matter of course, to the houses of their colleagues. The military outpost of Sitapur, held then by Queen's troops and native cavalry, was reached by posting along the now nearly deserted highway. The traveller was offered a police escort, and his refusal was committed to writing, for the justification of the authorities in case of outrage; for as a rule one preferred to run the risk of robbery-under-arms to loading the wretchedly horsed box-onwheels in which one travelled with the weight of two policemen, who might perhaps be the friends or relatives of the dacoits; but one went armed with a serviceable revolver. Northwards from Sitapur, Kheri lay twenty-eight miles away, and it took seven hours to reach it in a dooli; beyond that was the unknown, and again the dooli, with its band of 'kahars' of 'banghiwalas,' and of 'masalchis,' was requisitioned to bear the traveller through the misty night, through jungle and grass, across the great Sardah River, and so on to the Government forests on the confines of Nepal.

Once arrived, the Forester would probably not see a white face-save occasionally that of a fellow-officer-until the return to headquarters- eight months later through the monsoon floods, unless happily he encountered a shootingparty on its way to Nepal, or persuaded some friends to aid for a time in dispelling the loneliness of his life. At present, Lucknow is only separated by about thirty hours' journey from Bombay, and this time may be spent commodiously in an express train with restaurant accommodation; while from Lucknow one may nowadays enter the saloons of the Rohilkhand and Kumaun Railway one evening, and the next be at the railhead on the Nepal frontier.

The Trans-Sardah Forest, where I first was posted as Assistant, comprises an area of about 300 square miles abutting on the Nepal border, and on its outskirts were numerous small villages, struggling against malaria and against the disadvantages of the jungle and the raids of its wild beasts; there were then probably few populous and wealthy villages within a distance of 5 miles of the State reserves. Inside these the

aboriginal Tharus were settlers, and they, on an area of about 30,000 acres, enjoyed what the peasant of the plains considered to be the greatest drawbacks to the locality. They were proof against malaria, and mighty hunters and fishermen ; they fed

II.-2 B

on rice, flesh and fish, distilling their own liquor, and, like the Burmans in the north-east of India, tattooed themselves with indigo, were adepts at the manufacture of artistic baskets, and answered no call to work for others when they could otherwise live in comfort. The forests even then were recognised as being amongst the most valuable of Upper India; they were composed almost entirely of Shorea robusta, or 'sâl,' with a mixture of Terminalia tomentosa, or 'sain,' and other valuable species standing on the high alluvial land. Lower down, the shisham' and the 'khair' formed pure forests water-sown by the floods sent down from the Nepal Hills.

The whole area had been devastated by fire and by unregulated felling. The forest was burnt over every year by the Tharus to clear the undergrowth for hunting, and by the graziers to obtain a crop of young grass; while anyone might in former days have felled half a dozen trees of six-foot girth for a rupee, and have selected one of the best for removal without further payment. The best had thus disappeared, and the forest was full of fallen timber and of trees tapped either for the extraction of resin or to verify their soundness. Beyond a two-roomed shanty at Duduaghat, now a station on the railway, there were no houses in the forest, and tents were the only shelter against the frosts of winter, the heats of summer and the breaking of the monsoon. Once a week a runner arrived from headquarters with news from the outer world and with a small stock of its luxuries; a bullock-cart took three weeks or more to reach the nearest railway-line, and to return with a load of the more bulky necessaries of life."

CHAPTER XI

FOREST OPERATIONS IN BENGAL AND ASSAM, 1865–1870

I

T has been mentioned (I, Chap. XXVII) that no attention had been paid to the question of introducing conservancy into the Bengal Forests during the previous periods into which this history has been divided.

In January, 1863, the Government of India requested the Bengal Government to give its attention to the conservation of the forests under its jurisdiction and to "favour us with its views as to the best course to be adopted in placing this branch of the administration on a more efficient footing. In September, 1864, the enquiries set on foot by the Bengal Government, which had been undertaken by Dr. T. Anderson, the Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, resulted in this officer being temporarily appointed as Conservator of Forests, Lower Provinces, in addition to his other duties. His instructions were to submit a scheme for conducting forest operations in British Sikkim and Assam. Dr. Anderson's proposals were submitted in January, 1865, and included also the working of the forests in the Bhutan Duars. Military operations were, however, being carried on in Bhutan at this period.

The enquiries into the condition of the forests were instituted by Anderson on sound lines, and have resulted in presenting us with a succinct account of the position of the Bengal Forests at the period

It will be remembered (I, p. 512) that, towards the end of 1862, Anderson had discussed with Brandis the policy to be pursued with reference to introducing Forest Conservancy into the Bengal Forests. Brandis had already made a tour through a part of these forests, having received orders to do so on his way from Burma. In addition to the charge of the Botanic Gardens, Anderson also held charge of the Government cinchona plantations in the hills in which four Europeans were employed, one of whom was Mr. G. Mann. This officer

« 上一頁繼續 »