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2 140, Since writing this, a letter has been received from the Superintend-
3 Correspondence on the sulject of Ont, Botanical Gardens, in reply to the one
4 effects of the junglo fires, addressed to him on the subject of jungle fires, to
5 which I would draw particular attention. These letters are given below to
6 speak for themselves, and it is hoped that some practical plan will come out
7 of the references made to the Commissioners of Cooch Behar and Assam on
8 the subject.
9 No. 19, dated Caloutta, the 27th May 1872.
10 From—H. Lrrns, Ese., Conservator of Forests, Bengal.
11 To—The Superintendent, Royal Botanical Gardens.
12 I HAVE just come across a paragraph in a letter from the Commissioner, Cooch Behar,
13 to Government of Bengal, which has somewhat surprised me, and of which I attach copy to
14 ask you your opinion on the matter.
15 2. I believe there isno doubt that the annual fires do good so far as killing many insects
16 goes which are injurious to timber, and that they once a year at least thoroughly ventilate the
17 forests and purge them of unhealthy vapours; but these advantages are nothing in my
18 opinion to the destruction committed by fire in S4l forests, nor can I think that the Commis-
19 sioner can have understood Dr Anderson’s meaning in regard to it. If the jungles fires
20 did not yearly destroy the young seedlings, they would in most places spring up so thickly
21 as to kill the grass, and by natural process keep out the fires. I have myself seen large
22 tracts of Sal forests in the Dooars, where the trees appear to be entirely arrested in their
23 growth from the effects of jungle fires, as the fires go through the tracts just at the time the
24 young leaves and shoots are bursting forth, where there is not a single tree with a branch or
25 head to it, where the pole-like boles are knotted at every joint owing to continual destruc-
26 tion of the leaves and young branches, which would but for the fires follow the course of
27 nature; in fact, tracts where there is not a singlo healthy tree to be seen, and where evidently
28 the forest is not growing. I cannot attribute this to anything but the effects of the jungle
29 firos. I refer especially here to a tract in Ramshi Hat across the Teesta and about 15 miles
30 from J ulpigori, where a herds of buffaloes are kept, and whence a considerable quantity
31 of “ ghee” 1s exported. The question is one of much importance, and I should be glad to have
32 your opinion.
33 Extract from a letter from the Commissioner of the Cooch Behar division to the Under-Secretary
34 to the Government of Bengal,—(No. 174, dated Julpigori, the 19th January 1871.)
35 (Sudject.—New Forrst Ruces.)
36 Para. 10.—Section 58 will not apply to the Dooars of Bhutan, as there are no commu-
37 nities who have forest rights; but if it did, it would render it imposible for tho people to
38 exist. It is the practice to burn the grass in and around the forests every year. This practice,
39 which would be utterly destructive of pine forests, is universally believed by natives to be
40 neo ssary to the health of Sal forests ‘The late Dr Anderson when Conservator of Forests
41 rejected the idea of the possicility of fire bonetiting the forests; but two years or more ts
42 he informed me that he had found it to be the fact, and explained the cause. He said the
43 anuual fires kill the inseots and do for the forests what we are obliged to have done by manual
44 labor in the Botanical Gardens. ‘The first shoots of the Sal, like those of many other trees, are
45 commonly too vigorous for their roots; the annual fires for three or four years burn down the
46 shoot, but by the fifth year it has acquired sufficient vigour at root to enable it to rise above
47 the fire and it takes no damage Tho fires thereafter continue annually to scorch the lowest
48 branches and thus allow the stem to grow. Dr. Anderson intimated to me his intention of
49 publishing a paper on the subject, which [ would recommend for inquiry before what appears
50 to bo a useless piece of cruelty is inflicted on the people.
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