1 ( 389 )
2 PART VII.
3 GENERAL.
4 88. The following table exhibits the number of cases which
5 have been prosecuted in the different Magisterial Courts, whether
6 of forest or civil officers :—
7 i
8 & *
9 =_— — Boas be —e
10 Provinces. | Na. of Prosecutions. sie iy opine maa ssi
11 — ee ele es Sa ee — Ee —_—_—— a
12 t S
13 Bengal ... ne Ne a & 4
14 North-Western Provinces AES wa 524 . 445
15 Panjab... kas “ 4 Not clearly given.
16 Oudh ee ane are st St mt
17 Central Provinées " + B61. 469
18 Burma .,.. ae acu ae 76 59
19 Mysoro ‘o-_ eee oba e i 428 a0
20 Coorg ane eat — r
21 Berar eed “bee eee 60 69
22 Totan we, 1,736 1,146
23 al
24 89. The question’ of passing ® more complete Forest Act,
25 to supersede Act VII of 1865, was considered by the Govern-
26 ment of India during the past year in connection with an
27 application for sanction to a revised set of forest rules for
28 Burma. After careful consideration it was decided that any
29 fresh general legislation was at present unadvisable, and that
30 if special rules, which the present Act would not cover, were re-
31 quired for any province, it would be preferable to pass a short
32 special Act for the purpose of rendering any such special rules
33 lawful. It cannot be donbted that this decision is a wisc one,
34 and that an elaborate Forest Act would at present be out of
35 lace.
36 90. The question of fotest rights, as affecting the population
37 generally, (to which attention was specially directed by the
38 Right Wonorable the Secretary of State, in ‘reviewing the Forest
39 Reports of last year,) has also reccived serious consideration
40 from the Government of India. During the last twelve months,
41 modifientions hve been made in; the Burma forest rules, to
42 enable people inhabitfng villages near the State forest reserves,
43 to take out licenses for obtaining building timber, grass, and
44 other produce of the; forests in their vicinity. A rule also has
45 been passed, prohibiting the Boundary of any fgrest reserve from
46 being carried within the distancé of qne-fourth of a mile from
47 any village. In Coorg, thé rmles for grazing have been relaxed
48 where they seemed to press too hardly on the people; and in the
49 North-West hill forests, where, owing to the proximity of
50 the forests to the rich and well-to-do districts of Jounsar, the
51 conservancy rules appeared to be causing discontent, an en-
52 quiry is now, at the special request of His Excellency the
53 Viceroy, being instituted by the local Government, with a view
54 of removing any legitimate cause of complaint that may exist.
55 In taking up forest reserves in new localities, where the people
56 are unaccustomed to any restriction of their forest privileges, it is
57 impossible to he too careful not to alarm their prejudices, nor to
58 arouse their suspicions as to any infringement of their long-estab-
59 lished rights in the forest. As was said in last year’s review, the
60 forest tribes, while generally admitting tho proprictary right of
61 Government as the paramount power to the soil and its appur-
62 tenances, regard this right as one to be paternally exercised, and
63 will never concur in the justice of any measures by which they
64 are debarred from a fair use of the forests for their own purposes.
65 Where, then, it is necessary to reserve valuable tracts of forest,
66 and, for a time at all events, to exclude both men and cattle,
67 the reasons for such exclusion should be carefully explained to