1 (7)
2 To be useful to the manufacturers the trees must stand within 3 or 4
3 miles of a plentiful supply of water during the dry season.
4 Cutch trecs are felled ton small extent by Lime burners, but an enormous
5 number eo! trees of all sizes are felled by Contractors who supply fuel to the
6 steamers on the Irrawaddie. The ravages committed by these men are 80
7 great that Cutch manufactories have disappeared from the neighbourhood of
8 the Irrawaddie, and the manufacturers complain that the fuel cutters are
9 depriving them of their means of livelihood.
10 The destruction of these trees, it is confidently estimated, will, if un-
11 checked, lead ere long to the extinction of this valuable species in all avail
12 able localities.
13 84, In addition to the above information, it has also to be noted that
14 Cutch boilers, who are mostly Chins practising ¢oungya or jhoom cultivation,
15 in the rains, are generally in well-to-do circumstances. The cattle employed
16 in the transport of the Cutch logs to the site of the manufactory, and removal of
17 produce thence to the main river, are, in most instances, their own property.
18 35. Formation of District Forests. It may not be inappropriate to note
19 under this section that, at the request of the Conservator, a report on the separ-
20 ate classification of, and methods of treating Forests in Berar and this province,
21 was drawn up by Captain Douglas, Deputy Conservator of Forests, and submit-
22 ted to the Local Government with reference to the subject of Forest demarca-
23 tion.
24 The suggestion, that large, instead of small blocks, should be reserved,
25 when conditions are favorable, was entirely concurred in; but regarding the
26 formation of District Forests, the Local Government, in No. 1241, of the 17th
27 May 1872, stated that the condition of this Province being different to that of
28 Berar, and the people likely, on a comparatively smal] provocation, to quit the
29 country, the matter would be referred for the opinions of some of the Com-
30 missioners and Deputy Commissioners, before orders could be passed on the sub-
31 ject.
32 36, To illustrate the views of Captain Douglas, the following extracts
33 from the Annual Report of the Tharrawaddie Division are subjoined in
34 extlenso :—
35 “In India all Forest dues are distributed equally on the producing
36 “‘ lands ofthe province, whereas in Burma, it is proposed to limit them to lands
37 “* within certain tracts only.
38 “It would be difficult at present to say what the consequences of this
39 ‘arrangement would be ; certainly, it would curtail the resources from which
40 “Forest Revenue might be obtained; it would also limit the areas from which
41 ‘further Forests might be selected, and finally, it might place under un-
42 “due pressure the! inhabitants of the Tracts notificd, were they subjected to a
43 “future taxation which outsiders would escape.”
44 # a € . 8 *
45 “Tt is worthy of remark that neither the existing nor the proposed
46 Forest Rules for the province provide for the administration through the
47 ‘agency of Deputy Commissioners of Unreserved Forests, which, in India,
48 forms a very important part of the Forest system.”