1SS4.] FORESTRY IN BRITISH BURMA. 401 



FORESTRY IN BRITISH BURMA* 



»HIS report discloses a very liigli degree of sustained activity 

 and continued advancement on the part of the Indian Forest 

 Department. It also discloses incidentally many difficulties 

 that have to be contended with in prosecuting the very useftd and 

 necessary work of forestry. The climate of some of the Burmese 

 forest districts is so unfavourable to human health as to be dreaded 

 by the natives themselves, and work is not unfrequently inter- 

 rupted by fever and sickness. The European forest officers are 

 obliged to go on furlough and to change their posts more frequently 

 than would be necessary in a better climate ; but the department 

 seems to be so organized that the administration does not suffer 

 thereby. The regulated procedure and general uniformity of opera- 

 tions permits of one official taking up and continuing the work 

 where his predecessor left off. Glimpses of the work wliich has been 

 going on in the forests of Burma for many years may be obtained 

 from the following extracts, which have been pieced together almost 

 word for word from portions of the Progress Report. 



There are in Burma 3,427 square miles of demarcated State 

 forests, and proposals for the constitution of further reserves will be 

 very carefidly considered before they are sanctioned. The selection 

 of further reserves will, however, continue as long as valuable Teak 

 areas are available which can be reserved without inconvenience to 

 the people, and which are not likely to be required for the extension 

 of cultivation, especially as the proportion of reserves to the total 

 area of the province is as yet small. Of the reserves, as yet only 211 

 square miles have been brought under fire protection, at an expense 

 of about seventy rupees per square mile. The principal operation of 

 fire protection seems to consist in the clearing and keeping clear of 

 straight fire-traces at least broad enough for the passage of an 

 elephant. 



The net revenue of the forests of British Burma for the year 

 1882-83 was in excess of the previous year in the two Circles, and 

 .amounted to — 



Net revenue of Tenasserim Circle ... Pts. 4,86,842 

 Net revenue of Pegu Circle 7,88,098 



Total net revenue Es. 12,74,940 



Or more than £100,000. 



* ' Progress Report of Forest Administration in British Burma for 1882-83." By 

 Lieutenant-Colonel W. J. Seaton, M.S.C., Conservator of Forests, Tenasserim Circle, 

 and H. C. Hill, Esq., Officiating Conservator of Forests, Pegu Circle. With a Eeyiew 

 by the Chief Commissioner, and Orders by the Government of India. 1883. 



