670 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



with the continued existence of forests, and to allow others as far 

 as possible. But the necessity for a restrictive policy at all, while 

 necessarily distasteful to right-holders, was not readily accepted as 

 right by the local officers of the Indian Civil Administration, with 

 whom it has always been an honourable tradition to seek above all 

 things the happiness and contentment of the people. They were un- 

 able to look with favour on measures which seemed to indicate an 

 exceess of zeal on behalf of the State and to be in needless derogation 

 of privileges long enjoyed without much apparent injury to public in- 

 terests. It has been suggested that, though the accumulated mischief 

 caused by neglect of conservancy during a long series of years is in- 

 calculable, yet it is not possible always to detect any appreciable damage 

 done in a particular locality during a short period. Such a consider- 

 ation alone might partly explain the tendency to reject as idle the fears 

 of experts and to recent measures savouring of harshness and productive 

 of discontent. In course of time, as forest management became stif- 

 fened and matured, friction was undoubtedly developed and gave rise 

 to diflficulties. One of the purposes of the Forest Act of 1890 was to 

 give effect to recommendations made by Lord Reay's Government for 

 reconciling legitimate local demands with State requirements. The 

 principle is now recognized that the central authority in forest matters, 

 so far as the interests of the people are concerned, must be the Com- 

 missioner of the Civil Administrative Division, and that no rivalry 

 between two great State Departments is possible. The Forest Admi- 

 nistration has thus been brought into closer union with the general Civil 

 Administration of the country, many causes of complaint have been 

 removed and forest work has been placed on a sounder footing. 



The particular area of which I spoke at the beginning of my paper 

 includes the hilly tracts of country on either side of the range of West- 

 ern Ghats, in the Dekhan and Konkan, respectively, between the 

 latitudes, roughly speaking, of Bombay and Satara. As compared 

 with other forest areas elsewhere in the Presidency it is by no means 

 remarkable, so far as the production of valuable timber is concerned ; 

 but it is of interest as illustrating generally the methods of the Forest 

 Department ; and it is of special interests to the inhabitants of Bombay 

 and many other cities in the plains, as it includes the two popular Hill 

 stations of Matheran and Mahableshwar, which owe much of their 



