NOTES ON INDIAN FORESTRY IN 1906. 219 
29. Notes on Indian Forestry in 1906. 
By JOHN NisBer, D.CEc. 
Probably for the first time in its history, the Indian Forest 
Department had a very high compliment paid to it in the 
Secretary of State’s Budget speech in the House of Commons, 
when he stated, on zoth July 1906, that “there has been an 
increase in forest revenue in five years of more than £600,000. 
I cannot wonder that those who are concerned in these opera- 
tions look forward with nothing short of exultation to the day 
when this country will realise what a splendid asset is now being 
built up in India in connection with these forests.” 
The net surplus revenue, after deducting all direct and indirect 
expenditure on the working, management and improvement of 
the 250,000 square miles of State Forests entrusted to the 
Forest Department (of which about 100,000 are reserved, and 
150,000 protected or unclassed forests), amounted in 1903-04 
to £670,000, but in 1904-05 it rose to £730,000, and in 1905-06 
it was estimated at £840,000. And these large sums of net 
revenue, it must be remembered, would be very largely increased 
if any credit were given for the money-value of timber, bamboos 
and minor produce either removed free under grants and 
registered rights of user, or else sold to privileged parties at 
reduced rates for extraction. But large though this revenue be, 
there is still ample room for its expansion, as it only represents 
below £3 a square mile of forest, or 13d. an acre. 
One is apt to get bewildered in the immensity of Indian figures 
and areas. They run so easily into millions of cubic feet of 
timber and, of fuel, many millions of bamboos, hundreds of thou- 
sands of pounds sterling of revenue, and thousands of square 
miles. The 250,000 square miles of State Forests are 
administered by nineteen Conservators, so that each such circle 
contains over 12,500 square miles of reserved or unreserved forests, 
while the actual extent of territory forming each Conservator’s 
charge averages over 57,000 square miles, which is over 3400 
square miles in excess of the total area of England and Wales. 
Two of the effects of the large surplus revenue earned for the 
Indian Treasury have been the reorganisation of the Forest 
Department and the improvement of the scale of pay to the 
officers. The last reorganisation took place in 1882, so that the 
improved position now given to forest officers has only been 
