1 ( 7 )
2 are now (after having been submitted to the Deputy Commissioner of the
3 district) before the Commissioner for consideration. So soon as the orders of
4 overnment have been received, competent surveyors will be employed to
5 survey the approved tracts in minute detail; while at the same time forest
6 officers will make valuation forest surveys and carry on forest work with «
7 view to preparation of a ‘ working plan” for each Reserve.
8 CHITTAGONG.
9 28. Proposals for the reservation of certain tracts of forests visited last
10 season are now before the Commissioner of the division.
11 BHAUGULPORE.
12 29. As regards the ‘‘reserved” blocks mentioned in paragraph 19 of
13 the report for 1870-71, the Deputy Commissioner states that no establish-
14 ment has beon appointed to watch and protect the tracts, as in his opinion it
15 would be waste of money to pay for watchersin such an out-of-the-way and
16 inaccessible tract of country, and that a very fair supervision is now being
17 exercised over the blocks by the sub-divisional officers, who have sent up peuple
18 to court for cutting timber. But as in the same lettcr he speaks of jhooming as
19 still being carried on in them, and that immense quantities of bamboos (about 3
20 lakhs) had been found cut without license, for which, on discovery, the cutters
21 had been made to pay Ks. 1 por 1,000, it would appear that some watchers
22 should be in charge, and the Deputy Conservator has been addressed on the
23 subject with a view to coming to some agreement with the Assistant Commissioner
24 as to the best arrangoment to make to stop jhooming in the Sal covered tracts.
25 30. This is perhaps the best plate to refer to the subject of jungle fires
26 pera ease and the injury they cause. The injury done to
27 se aici the forests by jungle fires is unquestionable, as is
28 also the injury done by cattle grazing; but these are evils not easily overcome,
29 as clearing tracts round Reserves would be a costly business, and, excluding
30 cattle genorally, would = very hard on the district population, and also
31 upon owners of cuttle, who send their herds periodically to graze in the jungle,
32 whore large quantities of ‘“ ghee” are manufactured and sent down to market.
33 31. The junglo fires are in great measure due to the owners of cattle, who
34 set fire to the jungles as soon as the grass will burn—about February—in order to
35 clear the land and let the cattle graze on the young grass, which comes up then.
36 Village huntsmen also do a great deal of mischief by setting fire to patches of
37 grass in order to shoot deer thus driven out of cover. These fires often extend
38 over miles of country round, doing a great deal of mischief. Outside of the
39 Government Reserves grazing is leascd out by the district officers; and last year
40 the grazing in the forests of the Dooars was let out by the Assistant Conservator
41 for Rs. 2,704-12, as it is impossible to keep cattle out of Government forests unless
42 an establishment out of all roportion to revenue be kept for the purpose, which
43 establishment would coobaity be involved in endless collision with the cattle
44 owners who had rented the grazing of the neighbouring land. The destruction
45 done by the fires is not confined to the burning of seedlings, which come up
46 plentifully every year only to be immediately burnt down or injured irre-
47 coverably ; they seriously injure also the trees growing, or rather standing, in the
48 forests, for their appearance over whole tracts leads to the belicf that the growth
49 of the troes is absolutely stopped by tho fires, which destroy all the young leaves
50 and give the trunks of the trees a gnarled, knotty, and crooked appoarance.
51 Clusters of young shoots, striking out all along the trunk of the trees, which,
52 with very few exceptions, over large tracts, have a stunted, unhealthy look,
53 without leading shoots or crowns.
54 32. Itis impossible to account for this state of things except as being
55 caused by the yearly jungle burning. The grass is very heavy, and the heat of
56 tho conflagration must be intense and injurious to a very great degree, for the
57 bark of the trees is blackened and charred sometimes more than 20 feet up the
58 bole. Expense and regard for the cattle owners require that a regular and gradual