1 (RESOLUTION.)
2 REVENUE DEPARTMENT.
3 Forests.
4 Calcutta, the 26¢h November 1872.
5 READ—
6 The Conservator of Forests’ annual report for the year 1871-72.
7 1. The Government forests of Bengal are confined, almost entirely, to the
8 Cooch Behar and Assam divisions, to the Cachar district and the Chittagong
9 Hill Tracts, and tothe Sunderbunds. There are a very few small patches of
10 scrub jungle belonging to Government in other parts of Bengal; and there are
11 the remains of fine forests in some of the tributary states of Chota Nagpore and
12 Orissa; but so far as existing forests or sources of timber supply are concerned,
13 the forests of Bengal are confined to the tracts first mentioned. Notwithstand-
14 ing the fact that the forests of Bengal are confined to its eastern and north-
15 eastern frontier, and to a small patch on its sea-face, enquiries during the past
16 year have made it tolerably clear that only a comparatively small tract under
17 this Government really suffers much from the want of firewood, or of such
18 timbers as the common ranks ‘of the natives of India usually use. In the
19 Patna, Shahabad; Gya, and Sarun districts of Behar only, does it appear that
20 the people are really badly off for firewood and petty timbers. Western
21 Bengal is supplied partly from the Sunderbunds, and partly from the high lands
22 to its west. ‘lhe southern districts of Central Bengal draw ample supplies of
23 cheap wood from the Sunderbunds. In the city of Calcutta firewood is probably
24 cheaper than in any large town of India,—a short system of rivers and canals
25 brings the products of the Sunderbunds to several parts of Calcutta and its
26 environs. To the northern districts of Central Bengal, bamboos and timber are
27 brought by river from the sub-Himalayan forests. Eastern Bengal is supplied
28 by water from the Sunderbunds, from the frontier jungles, and from occasional
29 private forests scattered over the country. Parts of Behar alone are in great
30 want of some fresh wor of firewood and petty timbers; the rest of Behar is
31 supplied from the Nepal and sub-Himalayan forests. Orissa has plenty of
32 forest on the hills to its west, as well as a fringe of jungle on its sea-face.
33 The open country of Chota Nagpore, Cooch Bebar, and Assam, is all more or
34 less surrounded by, or interspersed with, forest or Jungle. One, somewhat
35 remarkable, fact came out last year regarding the miango groves and timber
36 supply of Behar. he opium agency consumes annually some hundreds of tons
37 of mango wood for its opium chests; yet the manager of the largest estate in
38 Tirhoot thought it necessary to put a clause in his tenants’ leases to prevent
39 their planting new mango groves, because there were already so many groves;
40 and land under ‘groves pays such low rents.
41 ‘he supply of large timber for all Bengal comcs mainly from the sal forests
42 of Nepal and from the teak forests of Burmah. The former is brought by the
43 Ghogra and Ganges rivors to every district in the Ganges delta; the latter comes
44 by sea to Chittagong and Calcutta. In reality there 1s little need among
45 ordinary rural districts for large timbers, which are wanted only by the Govern-
46 ment departments, by the railways in large towns, and by boat-builders on the
47 © Nore.—The Conscrvator’s present Danks of the Ganges. To all these consumers
48 meron says (paragraph 33)—" Markets foreign* timber is brought by water. ‘Timber from
49 Nopal and-by sea then can bo done Dbuitan and the eastern Himalayas has yet hardly
50 from the Government forosta.” See also Come into competition with the Nepal sAl in the
51 SER See eee eRe Dacca markets ; some few timbers are brought down
52 by river from the Chittagong Ilill Tracts to the sea-board, and the canoes
53 (dug-outs, or hollowed trees) used on all the rivers and streams of Bengal, are