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CHAPTER XXVIII

THE OPINIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON THE VALUE OF THE FORESTS, 1862

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N endeavour has been made in the preceding chapters to trace the history of the forests in the different parts of India, so far as this has proved possible, during a period of approximately seventy years. The recognition of the value of the forests and of their importance to the general welfare of the community and the country as a whole, had been of very gradual growth. The realisation had not yet been achieved in some parts, whilst in others it was still questioned by the officials. Amongst the population, speaking generally, the value of the forests and the necessity of their conservation had received no recognition. That both the Secretary of State at home and the Government of India had become fully alive to the importance of the forests and imbued with the conviction that the introduction of a systematic conservancy was a work of immediate importance is evidenced by the two Despatches transcribed below, which form a fitting termination to this volume.

Some correspondence had taken place as to the Department of the Government of India under which the management of the forests should be placed. The Government of India had placed it under the Public Works Department on the grounds that that Department had the chief interest in the utilisation of the forests, a contention borne out, it is true, by the previous sixty years' operations in the forests. As the Secretary of State correctly pointed out, however, "the interests of the Public Works Department lie rather in procuring timber for present use than in preserving future supplies of the article." The Government of India explained that there was no separate Revenue Department in their Government. That unless placed under the Public Works Department the Forest Department would be under both the Home and Foreign Departments.

It would be inconvenient to place the new Department under the Home Department alone, as the mass of the forests were in the Non-Regulation Provinces. That if placed under the two Departments there would be divided control, which would be objectionable. The connection between the Forest and Public Works Departments would be a merely nominal one, no control being exercised by the officers of the Public Works Department over the Forest Officers or their management of the forests. In view of this explanation the Secretary of State reluctantly agreed to the proposal, stipulating that the new Forest Department should be strictly enjoined to act in concert with the Revenue Department, and that papers in connection with forest matters sent home should be marked "Revenue Forests" in addition to "Public Works."

The Despatch from the Governor-General in Council to the Secretary of State on the subject of the forests is dated Ist November, 1862, and (omitting a few paragraphs irrelevant to the matter in question) is as follows:

"It will be convenient in the first place to refer briefly to the past history of forest administration by the Government of India, and to point out the steps by which matters have been brought to their present position. As to Madras and Bombay, no sensible interference with forest management by us takes place. Both of these Governments have an organised forest administration, but regarding this nothing need be said here, as it is not our present wish to suggest any change in regard to those Presidencies.

In Bengal till now (1862) nothing has been done in the matter of forests, and a sufficient commentary on the results of this neglect will be found in the fact that it is still necessary to import railway sleepers from Norway, because the available supply of suitable timber from indigenous sources is too costly or too small. Quite lately a proposal has come from the Bengal Government to appoint an officer to inspect the forests of Assam, with a view to determining what should be done with them, but we regret that we have not been able to name a qualified person for this duty. It appears that hitherto a certain revenue has been derived in that Province from licences to fell timber, but no regular system has been established. No doubt much the same state of things obtains in the other forest tracts of Bengal.

In Burma the importance of the forests has long been recognised. From the date of our first acquisition of the Tenasserim

Provinces the value of the teak timber exported from Moulmein was apparent. The late Mr. J. R. Colvin commenced the organisation of a Forest Department as long ago as 1847, when he was Commissioner of those Provinces; and since Dr. Brandis, the present Superintendent of Forests, has been in office, a period of seven or eight years, a steady improvement in the state of the Forest Department in the Burmese Provinces is believed to have been made, as well in the system of administration as in the net money return obtained by the Government, and in the supply of timber rendered available for the public.

In Oudh a Superintendent of Forests has been appointed since the reoccupation of that Province; from the latest information before the Government he is engaged in fixing the boundaries of the tracts of forest that are to be preserved and in preparing for their survey, which is going on at the same time.

In the North-Western Provinces the difficulty of obtaining timber has been painfully felt for the last fifteen years or more, but the administration of the forests there up to the time of the mutinies was a melancholy failure. A superintendent was appointed in 1854 to the charge of the forests in the Dehra Dun and the west of Rohilkund, the result of whose bad management was the completion of the ruin of almost all the forests that still contained good-sized trees. At present the most important part of the North-Western Provinces Forests is under the direct management of Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay, the Commissioner of Kumaun, who has at last introduced order into the administration. But he works on the wreck of the forests, and it will take many years to restore them to a proper condition.

In the Punjab it is believed that there is no timber of any appreciable value, except on the mountain slopes within the Himalaya, and the tracts which contain timber are shared between the British Government and Native States. Dr. Cleghorn from Madras is now engaged in visiting these forests, and his Report to the Local Government may be expected

soon.

In the Central Provinces a superintendent was appointed in 1860, and it is hoped that matters are in train there to prevent further deterioration, and the development of this part of the resources of those districts; but here also all operations are based on almost ruined forests.

In the Hyderabad Assigned Districts, attention has been directed within the last two or three years to the necessity of preserving the forests, and it is understood that a system of conservancy is in course of being matured by the local authorities. The high prices of timber, and scarcity constantly complained of by Public Works Officers in these districts, prove the general deficiency of trees.

From the Straits Settlements no questions relating to forests have come before the Government of India. In Mysore some first steps have been taken to establish a system of conservancy, but they call for no special comment.

It will be understood from this account that until quite the last few years no forest administration has in truth existed. Occasionally questions arose as to the proper system to follow, but they were taken up in that Department of the Government of India to which they happened to be referred, and without any methodic or systematic policy. Hence at one time or place, forest management has been directly assumed by the Government, and at others the idea has prevailed that it is to private enterprise that the Government should look for the successful working of the forests of India. But so long as the supply of timber in the country was generally sufficient for the public works in hand, the question of forest management did not present itself to the Government as one calling for earnest consideration. Latterly, however, while the supply of timber has been steadily diminishing from want of proper conservation, the demand both for State and private purposes has been rapidly increasing, and the enormous requirements of the different railways for sleepers has especially brought the matter into very prominent notice, and has now made the subject of forest conservancy an important administrative question.

It is in this manner then that the connection between the forests and the Public Works Department has arisen. The requirements of this department for Government works in the North-Western Provinces first became so difficult to meet that, as before noticed, a superintendent was appointed to look after the business; he was a Public Works officer. Then the gradually increased demand for sleepers, which has naturally been considered in relation with the railway administration, led further to matters connected with forest management being frequently brought under consideration in the Public Works Department, in which the railway business is

transacted. The tendency to shift the consideration of forest questions into that Public Department which is most directly interested in the supply of timber, and to which all complaints come regarding the failure of the supply, was inevitable. In like manner the pressure thus exercised had caused the officers of the Government connected with the Public Works administration to be more alive than others to the real importance of the points at issue, and superintendents of forests or timber agents were from time to time appointed to assist in providing for definite or pressing wants. At length the Government of India perceiving the great and increasing importance of dealing with its forests in a more regular manner, and of concentrating the administrative control, which till then had been exercised in a feeble and desultory manner in all the Civil Departments, resolved to bring the consideration of all questions relating to forests before it, in one only of its departments, and selected for the purpose that of the Public Works, as being the one that actually had most frequently to deal with such matters, and that practically was most deeply interested in successful forest management.

And here it may be remarked that, although we spoke of the executive management of the forests having been under the Home or Foreign Departments, according as they were situated in regulation or non-regulation Provinces, in truth the substantive control, such as it was, has been also shared by the Financial Department; the late transfer of the duty to the Public Works Department was so far incomplete that the administration of the funds was still allowed to rest mainly with the Financial Department, and not merely to the extent exercised by the latter in regard to all branches of the public expenditure, but also as to details. Thus questions connected with the general administrative management of the forests are now disposed of in the Public Works Department, and individual appointments are made in it also, but the accounts of expenditure and the grant of funds for the service of the Forest Department are not dealt with in the Public Works Department, which, indeed, has till now taken no cognisance of such matters; they are considered with the general estimates of the revenues, and without any special reference to administrative projects or wants.

The first conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing statement of the present condition of things, seems to us quite unavoidably to be, that before discussing the question of the

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