1 ( 26 )
2 for instance, there is already a heavy expenditure for establishment and very
3 little return. However, this is inevitable, as the department has only boen
4 appointed to watch after the timber has been stolen, and the means given for
5 rotection of the forests and the improvement of the timber which 1s growing
6 in them must be adequate to the work, or forest conservancy 18 a mcre name
7 and reports delusive. Progress is admittedly slow, but under present circum-
8 stances it cannot be otherwise. The Forest Department is in the unfortunate
9 position of being expected tou make bricks without straw. Before commencing
10 operations or working plans we should first deal with the jungle fires. ‘To stop
11 these is no easy matter, but it lics at the root of forest conservancy in tropical
12 climates. This great evil does not exist in European climates, and having a
13 forest and plenty of skilled workmen, a proprietor may at once set to work and
14 draw out a working plan. It is his first and most interesting work to find out
15 what his property fs worth and likely to produce yearly; but in India, bofore
16 entering on this, our first care should be to arrest destruction and waste,
17 which is of two kinds:
18 (1.) Plunder and destruction by men.
19 (2.) Injury and destruction from what may be called, for the sake of
20 distinction, natural causes, z.e., jungle fires.
21 The first stage is not difficult to compass, and is merely a matter of establish-
22 ment and proper measures of superintendence, but the latter is a very difficult
23 one to deal with owing to the facility with which a tiro may be commenced,
24 and the difficulty which cxists in finding out the originator, and even when
25 found, of punishing him. Besides this a certain portion of revonue collected by
26 civil officers for grazing will have to be sacrificed, and these officers will not
27 readily consent to this or approve of a plan for putting a stop to jungle fires,
28 as it would interfere with the occupations and industry of many of the inha-
29 bitants. One Commissioner has placed it on record that jungle fires ure actually
30 a benefit to forests, because they kill insects, which may serve as an illustration of
31 the views held on the subject.
32 137. The prevention of jungle fires lies, as before said, at the root of the
33 saepieat arrest edaaetion preservation and improvement of our natural forests,
34 arising from jungle fires. and indecd of their very existence. It is the most
35 important subject we have to deal with, and should
36 take precedence of all othor mutters. A letter was addressed to the Superin-
37 tendent, Botanical Gardons, a short time ago for his views, as he is not only
38 a botanist, but has also been a forest officer, and can speak from experience as to
39 injury done to the forests, and the subject will immediately, on receiving his
40 reply, be taken up with a view to having some regular plan proposed to Comnuis-
41 sioners for their consideration.
42 138. This subject seems really of such importance, that it is suggested and
43 urged that the opinions of civil officers from their point of view, and the opi-
44 nions of forest officers all over India, be collected as to the destruction caused
45 by fires and the means which have been taken, or could be taken, best suited
46 tu put a stop to them. In Cooch Behar at least the evil is undoubted, and the
47 remedy rests with the civil district officers assisted by suggestions from forest
48 officers.
49 139, IfGovernment decided that regular work on the Reserves for tho
50 Separate ostablichuent for prepara preparation of working plans shall commence at
51 tion of working plans nec@ssury once, a special establishment should be appointed
52 for the purpose quite irrespective of the general forest establishment. Such an
53 Samincnt night commence operations in Assam after the sclected Reserves
54 have been approvod by the Commissioner, or in Bhitun in the Moraghat forests,
55 a splendid and compact Sal tract.