October t, 1884,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



283 



INDIAN FORESTRY. 



The following note has heeu drawn up by Sir George 

 Birdwood, to accompany the exhibition of Indian forest 

 produce in the International Forestry Exhibition, Edin- 

 burgh : — 



It may be 6aid that forest conservancy in India originated 

 in Edinburgh. Roxburgh, Waliich, Royle, and others of 

 the early explorers of Indian botany, long ago called 

 atteutiou to the destruction which had being going on for 

 centuries of the forests of India and Burmah. In primeval 

 times India, as is evident from the descriptions given in 

 the Ramayana and Mahabharata, was covered with dense 

 forests, the productions of which fouud their way into 

 the commerce of antiquity long before the name of India 

 itself became generally known. Thus most of the costly 

 spices used for embalming the dead in Egypt, anil by the 

 Jews in the service of the Tabernacle at Shiloh and 

 Jerusalem, must have been received from India. Recently, 

 also, it has beeu discovered that Indian Teak was used in 

 the building of the temples of Babylonia, although it is 

 uncertain whether it was employed in their original con- 

 struction during the period of the first Chaldean kingdom, 

 from about the thirteenth to the twentieth, and possibly 

 thirtieth century b. c, or in their restoration during the 

 Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar, iu the seventh 

 century E. c. 



In the course of the gradual occupation of the valley 

 of the Indus and of the Jumna and Ganges by the Aryan 

 race, and of Southern India by the Dravidian races, the 

 alluvial plain of Hindustan, and the upland basaltic plain 

 of the Deccan became partially deforested ; but primeval 

 forests still covered all the southern slopes of the Himalayas, 

 and the mountainous coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, 

 and the wide hilly region of Central India, north and south 

 of the Nerbudda and Taptee rivers, still known by the 

 name of Gondwana, " The Gond Forest." 



It was in the troubles following the decline of the Moghul 

 empire that these remaining forests were gradually encroached 

 on, and vast extents of the surface of the country con- 

 verted into wild wastes; and it was the destruction of 

 vegetation over wide extended areas at this time which 

 thenceforward rendered India liable to desolating droughts, 

 and the consequent calamity of often-recurring famines. 



"Where the British Government first felt the pinch was 

 in the increasing difficulty found in providing timber of 

 the required scantling for shipbuilding; and with the view 

 of keeping up the supply of Teak for the Government 

 dockyard at Bombay, the late Dr. Gibson, of the Medical 

 Establishment in that Presidency — where he was long known 

 to the passing generation by the affectionate soubriquet 

 of "Daddy Gibson" — was appointed in 1846 Conservator 

 of Forests. Such was the state of things in India, when, 

 in 1850, the British Association, which met in that year 

 at Edinburgh, appointed a committee to report on the 

 probable effects of the destruction of tropical Forests, and 

 the report was presented in the following year, when the 

 Association met at Ipswich. The broad view taken of the 

 subject in the report, and the weight of the facts brought 

 forward in illustration of the immense importance to flu- 

 economy of civilisation of the conservancy of the forests 

 of the tropics, attracted the attention of the Court of 

 Directors of the Honourable East India Company, and 

 within a few years afterward regular forest conservancy 

 establishments were sauctioued for the Madras Presidency 

 and British Burmah. 



Before 1848 no check whatever had been imposed in 

 India on the reckless clearing of the primeval forests for 

 cultivation, and no heed was taken of the effect of such 

 clearing, particularly on the slopes of hills, would bac- 

 on the rainfall. In 1848 Major-Geueral Frederick Oonyers 

 Cotton. C.S.I. , then a captain in the Madras Engineers', 

 urged on tin- Madras Government the necessity for taking 

 some immediate steps to preserve the forests bordering 

 on Coimbatore and Cochin from further denudation by 

 the reckless wastefulness on the native contractors who 

 farmed the forests for the supply of Teak-wood for the 

 Bombay dockyard. On his recommendation Colonel (then 

 Lieutenant i Michael, C. S. I., who had had opportunities of 

 observing forest conservancy on the continent of Europe, 

 and who, asan accomplished shikari, bad a wide practical 

 acquaintance with the forests of Southern India, was 



appointed to give effect to General Cotton's proposals. 

 Colonel Michael organised an establishment, opened out 

 roads and timber slips down the mountain passes, and 

 soon scored a financial success. His efforts in providing 

 efficient conservancy were far more important. It became 

 at once apparent that it was better in the interests oi 

 the State to preserve the magnificent natural forests of 

 the Presidency than to raise an immediate revenue from 

 them; and the first step taken in this view was to 

 an extensive Teak tract from the Zemindar of Colangode, 

 and to buy up all his minor contracts with timber merchants. 

 Tie- wholeofthe southern forests in the Madras Presidency, 

 down to Cochin and Travancore, were thus placed, and 

 have ever since remained, under strict conservancy. A 

 system of clearing belts of brush-wood to preserve the 

 young saplings fiom fire was also introduced, the hill tribes 

 being employed in the work; and iu this way the destruction 

 of the principal forests of Southern India was most 

 opportunely averted. 



Within a few years the advantages of these measures, 

 and the great success of Colonel Michael's work, were so 

 clearly seen, that the court of directors, who had just then 

 beeu so strongly impressed by the report of the British 

 Association, sanctioned the extension of General Cotton's 

 scheme to the remaining forests in the Madras Presideucy, 

 and, in short, inaugurated the organisation of the regular 

 forest department, not only in Southern India, hut for the 

 whole Indian peninsula and British Burmah. About the 

 same time Colonel Michael, whose health had been under- 

 mined by seven years of incessant exposure to the dangers 

 of forest life, when little was kuown about healthy or 

 unhealthy seasons in the jungles, was forced to retire from 

 his appointment, the woi k of which was taken up by Deputy- 

 Surgeon-General Hugh Cleghorn, M. D., as the first regularly 

 constituted Conservator of Forests in the Madras Presidency^ 



Cleghorn carried out the organisation of the newdepart- 

 ment in Madras with such astonishing energy and success 

 that he was soon called on to extend the sphere of Ins 

 operations into the Punjaub. He also afforded Dr. Brandis, 

 C. I.E., the most efficient assistance in introducing and 

 systematically working conservancy in the forests of Bengal, 

 and with the most satisfactory results. Brandis had pre- 

 viously done very distinguished forest work in Burmah, and 

 in 1802 was appointed Inspector-General of Forests under 

 the Government of India. From that time the successful 

 future of forest conservancy in India was assured. The 

 eminent scientific and administrative abilities of Dr. Brandis 

 have been widely recognised; and to him we owe the in- 

 troduction of the Indian F'orest Acts, which, while strengthen- 

 ing the hands of the Government, have secured to the 

 people the maintenance of all the ancient rights and privileges 

 inherited by them from time immemorial.* He. in fact, 

 by his great capacity, his wise recommendations, and lus 

 personal example of enthusiastic devotion to duty, has made 

 the Forest Department of India what it now is. 



The cost of the three establishments (including Bengal 



and Burmah), Madras and Bombay, iu salaries, travelling 



allowances, contingent expenses, &c, is £190,000 per annum. 



The Forest Acts, originated by Brandis, arose out of the 



necessity of giving a legal status and legal authority to 



* One of the main difficulties with which the Fores:) 

 Department almost throughout India has had to cope is 

 that of the customary privileges of common. The people, 

 especially the agriculturists, have for generations been 

 accustomed to use the forests for cutting firewood, grazing, 

 and even dealing for cultivation, without restriction. The 

 exercise of these rights, without regulation, was tending to 

 the certain destruction of the forests, and, with the rapid 

 increase of population under the British Government,- was 

 every year becoming more injurious to the public wel fan 

 It was. then fine, absolutely necessary to bring the Indian 

 forests under some control ; while at the same time it was 

 felt that to suddenly prohibit the traditionary rights of the 

 people in them would be most cruel and unjust. What, 

 then fore Brandis aimed at in bis Acts was to forbi.l al- 

 together flie exercise of those privileges which were incom- 

 patible with the existence of the forests, and to allow oti,- rs 

 to as great an extent as possible. Thus in every locality 

 some of the forest land is still hit open to grazing and 

 firewood cutting, &c., and some strictly closed for a period 

 long enough to enable the trees on it to recover. 



