1 ( 8 )
2 7. The subject adverted to para. 23 will be treated of in a separate
3 communication. The report of the committee lately appointed to enquire
4 into the grievances of the Mailghat people is not yet finally disposed of, and
5 it touches on the demarcation of Forests.
6 8. Past experience confirms the justice and good policy of the
7 remaks made in para. 24. The spirit in which the Forest Department in
8 Berar has always regarded the privileges which the wild hill people have
9 been accustomed to enjoy has doubtless had much to do with the success it
10 has achieved so far, and paved the way for still further progress. Your report
11 shows a rise in the number of offences against Forest regulations compared
12 with the previous year ; but the number recorded is not high enough to cast
13 any serious reflection on the good character which the people have always
14 borne in this respect. As you suppose, it may be a result of greater vigi-
15 lence on the part of the forest establishment in bringing infractions of rule
16 to notice.
17 9. The Officiating Resident agrees with you in thinking that “the
18 subject of rendering the Mailghat Forest more accessible by improving the
19 present lines of export is one of great importance.” The proposals you
20 hope to submit shortly for the attainment of this object are awaited with
21 interest.
22 10. It is much to be regretted that in spite of the precautions taken to
23 protect the Raipoor block from fire, nearly one fourth of it—about 7 square
24 miles—was burned in March. As the fire entered the block from without
25 and leaped across the fire-path by the aid ofa high wind, before it could be
26 arrested, Colonel Lumsden is unable to blame the watchers especially as he
27 observes that you have not charged them with negligence. You have, he
28 trusts, satisfied yourself that they were not absent from their posts at the
29 time. The breadth of the fire-path (60 yards) scems to have been inade-
30 quate ; it has since been inreased to 300 yards, as you remark that “ nothing
31 less than this can now be relied on for the exclusion of outside fires.”’ This
32 reform 1s approved.
33 11. Your statement in para. 56 as to the attempt made for the first
34 time in the year under report to keep down fires within the Byraghur
35 reserve is satisfactory, in that it records the preservation of about half, or
36 nearly 200 square miles, of an areca which you say has invariably been
37 burned in past years ; and is followed by the expression of a somewhat
38 confident hope on your part “as to the possibility of ultimately keeping down
39 fires entirely within the reserve.”” But it suggests a question which the
40 Officiating Resident thinks you should discuss scparately, viz., whether
41 the cost of watching so extensive an area will more than compensate the
42 damage generally done by fire.
43 12. In the Southern Division, it is observed no fires occurred and
44 fio special measures were required to prevent them ; the growth of grass
45 being so short in consequence of the very small rain-fall of the year.
46 13. The Officiating Resident has read with interest the account given
47 in paras. 64 to 80 of the Plantations in the Mailgehat and in the Oomra-
48 wutteo Districts. In the Intter, it may be said we are trying the generally
49 received opinion that the Babool is the only tree which will thrive in that
50 loealitv unless recourse be had to artificial expedients which will cost more
51 than the results hoped from them are likely to recoup. Your own visit to
52 these plantations appears to have been highly beneficial to thom ; and since
53 you found teak and bamboo plants flourishing, there would seem to be some