ON THE DESTRUCTION OP TROPICAL FORESTS. 83 



time I was there ; from which circumstance in the course of a few years these 

 valuable forests must be exhausted. The whole of this trade is in the hands 

 of a combined party of these people, who never fail to take advantage of any 

 particular demand that may occur." 



Jn Wight's ' Illustrations,' vol. ii., just received, he remarks, — " The timber 

 of the Tectona grandis is about the most highly esteemed in India, that of 

 nearly all other trees is spoken of as jungle-wood and inferior. Time does 

 not now permit, otherwise some remarks might have been offered on the 

 subject of the preservation of the teak forests, and the recent fearful waste 

 and destruction of that valuable, I had almost said invaluable, tree in all our 

 teak forests, without a single step being taken either to keep up the stock 

 or preserve young trees from the ruthless hands of contractors and others, 

 licensed to cut teak timber. Measures are now, I believe, in. progress to 

 arrest the ruinous destruction that has for some years been going on, and it 

 is hoped that the Directors will succeed in their object ; otherwise the stock 

 in hand will soon be exhausted." 



The following extract is from a private letter of Dr. Macfarlaue, late 

 Zillah Surgeon, Mangalore : — 



" For the Canara forests, I can testify from personal observation as late 

 as December 1849, that Coomree clearing was being carried on to a most 

 destructive extent in those tracts surrounding the falls of Gair-soopah. As 

 far as I could get any information on the subject from Lieut. Walker of the 

 Engineers, who is employed in the district of Canara, and with whom I 

 visited an extensive Coomree inclosure near the Deva-raunny Ghaut, no 

 check seems to be exercised over the forest population in this respect. 

 Lieut. Walker's description to me was, that the jungle people ringed the 

 trees to kill the large ones, took the branches and made a fence against wild 

 animals, burnt as much as they could, and then took one or two crops of 

 millet (or ragee) out of the soil, going over to another tract and repeating 

 the same practice. All around in that primaeval forest, thousands of acres 

 were, or had been, evidently under Coomree, the large timber-trees de- 

 stroyed, the spaces left blank in the forest, and in all these Coomree spaces 

 that had again been left to nature, I could not help remarking that wild 

 plantains invariably sprang up in myriads." 



The extensive forests of teak mentioned by Buchanan in his ' Journey 

 through Mysore in 1 800,' have well nigh disappeared, as will be seen by the 

 details in the following Report : — 



" Nuggur Division, Superintendent's Office, Shemoga, 

 5th May 1847. 

 " To the Secretary, to the Commissioner of the Government of the 

 Territories of the Rajah of Mysore. 

 "Sir, — In connection with the subject of my letter of the 11th March 

 last, there is another, unquestionably of great importance, now occupying the 

 attention of the Government of India, and which I am confident will at once 

 engage the attention of the Commissioner, — I allude to the conservation of 

 the forests as regards timber, the value of which might with care and atten- 

 tion be made very important in Nuggur. From want of these nearly all the 

 fine teak and other timber which once flourished on the banks of the Toonga 

 and Bhudra rivers have disappeared, and the Government has derived but 

 very little benefit from it. 



" 2. Vast quantities of various kinds of timber are yearly carried down the 

 Toongabhadra river to the open coimtry, by people who pay a small sum to 

 the farmer of the forests for the privilege of cutting it. In the months of 

 August and September these people take down hundreds of floats made of 



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