626 Forestry Quarterly 



This table includes only the State forests. The proportion of 

 forest to land area would be slightly increased by the inclusion of 

 privately owned forests. 



The population had risen to about 150 to the square mile before 

 a forest service or any forest protection beyond arbitrary reserva- 

 tion of royal trees for reserve purposes was established. 



Another reason for the proportion of forest remaining in India 

 lies in the extremely persistent character of plant and tree growth. 

 Except for the coniferous forests of the Himalayas, which con- 

 stitute a very small proportion of Indian forests, the species are 

 not readily inflammable and though injured by fire are not wiped 

 out as is so frequently the case in Canada. Forests near villages 

 hacked over from time immemorial for village and industrial use 

 still persist because of the tenacious character of tree life in India, 

 due partly to coppice and partly to a general ability common to 

 many tree species in India, of preserving a little life imder an un- 

 limited amount of persecution and springing up again the moment 

 persecution is relieved. 



These devastated areas, though bearing only a little scrub and 

 not recognizable to the Westerner as forests, were because of the 

 high price of timbers and the low earning power of the Indian 

 worth more per square mile than many a heavy virgin Cana- 

 dian forest. They were gathered up everywhere by the early 

 administrators, even down to scattered blocks of a square mile or 

 so, constituted State forests, and go to swell the total area. 



The natiu"e of the land ownership made simple the assembling 

 by the State of all non-agricultural or wooded tracts large and 

 small. The Mogul emperors and their predecessors had estab- 

 lished and maintained that all land belonged to the emperor. 

 The user paid as annual rent one-third of the crop. Royal trees,, 

 teak, sal and sandal wood were reserved to the emperor and might 

 not be cut, thus forest lands did not pass out of the hands of the 

 central authority. All land remained the property of the emperor. 

 The British, on establishing government after the faU of Mogul 

 and other lesser kingdoms, gave to each man the land to which 

 he could show title established by use. So few were the private 

 estates extending over woodland, even in a country where timber 

 is very valuable, that to the present time only 77,000 square 

 miles of forest are in private ownership. Even small areas of a 

 few acres of scrub or rocky ridges belong to the State, there being 

 no private individual who can show title to it. 



