DR CLEGHOKN's services TO INDIAN FORESTRY. 87 



IV. Br Cleghorns Services to Indian Forestry. By Sir D. 

 Brandis, late Inspector-General of Forests to the Govern- 

 ment of India. 



Since Forestry is now recognised as an important business in 

 India ; since it has become possible, by means of protection, and 

 chiefly by means of protection against the annual ravages of fire, 

 to convert the poor jungles of olden days into dense, well-stocked, 

 and productive forests, which yield a large and steadily increasing 

 revenue, — and mainly since experience has shown that Forest 

 Conservancy, instead of doing harm to the people of India, pro- 

 motes their well-being, and is a blessing to them and their country, 

 — the question has, naturally, often been asked and discussed, in 

 which part of the British Indian Empire Forest Conservancy was 

 first started 1 



In the beginning of the century the Government of Bombay 

 established a timber agency on the western coast of the peninsula, 

 in order to secure a permanent supply of Teak timber for the 

 Government dockyai'ds at Bombay. In 1847, Dr Gibson was 

 appointed Conservator of Forests in Bombay, and ever since that 

 time attempts have been made, with more or less success, not 

 only to work the Government forests of that Presidency, but also 

 to secure their maintenance, to protect and to improve them. 



Soon after Tenasserim had become British territory in 1826, 

 repeated, but at that time mostly ineffectual, attempts were made 

 to effect the protection of the Teak forests in that province. 



In the Presidency of Madras, Mr Conolly, the Collector of 

 Malabar, commenced planting Teak on a large scale at Nilambur, 

 and this was the beginning of those famous plantations, which 

 have since been steadily extended by the Madras Foi'est Depart- 

 ment, and which are now reported to cover 3500 acres. 



The object of the present paper is not to decide the question, 

 whether Madras or Bombay may claim the honour of having first 

 started Forest Conservancy in India, but to set forth the share 

 which Dr Cleghorn has had in this business ; and hence it will be 

 necessary to review somewhat more fully what was done in this 

 respect in the Madras Presidency, where Dr Cleghorn commenced 

 his labours. 



In May 1847, Captain Frederick Conyers Cotton (now Major- 

 General and Companion of the Star of India) reported to the 



