112 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



revenue, available for roads and other public improvements. In 

 many part3 of continental Europe, long experience has shown that 

 well-managed communal forests increase the prosperity of com- 

 munities and their inhabitants, facilitating at the same time the 

 development of healthy municipal institutions. And though at 

 present it would he premature to expect the people of India to 

 appreciate the advantages of such institutions, the time will cer- 

 tainly come when the importance of proposals tending in this 

 direction will he recognised. But so much seems certain, that the 

 State ought not to undertake the control of forests of other pro- 

 prietors until its own forest officers have the needful practical expe- 

 rience, and are competent to manage them to the best advantage. 



The general principle, that the more valuable forests should as 

 far as practicable be formed into State forest domains, has, after 

 much opposition, gradually been acknowledged in most provinces of 

 India ; and in some provinces the process of demarcating these 

 State forests has made considerable progress. From a late return, 

 I gather that the area of the reserved forests in the provinces under 

 the government of India, outside those of the Madras and Bombay 

 Presidencies, but including the forests leased from native princes, 

 is estimated at 9800 square miles, or 6,200,000 acres. In India, 

 these forests are called " reserved forests," as they are formally 

 reserved from sale, except by the express permission of the Supreme 

 Government. By way of comparison, I may mention that the 

 Crown forests of England cover 112,000 acres, the State forests of 

 France upwards of 2,500,000, and the State forests of the kingdom 

 of Prussia upwards of 6,000,000. 



The area here given for India, however, includes a large extent of 

 forests which are not the property of the State, but which are only 

 leas 1 ".'! for a definite time from native chiefs and princes. It also 

 includes a large extent of woodlands, which have not yet been 

 finally demarcated, or in which, though the State may be the pro- 

 prietor, the surrounding agricultural population exercise rights of 

 pasture, of cutting wood and timber, and, in some cases, of clearing 

 ground for cultivation. In a few provinces, such as Sindh and the 

 Central Provinces, circumstances were favourable at the time of 

 demarcation, and the State acquired at once absolute proprietorship 

 of these forest lands free of all prescriptive rights. In other pro- 

 vinces, the gradual adjustment and extinction of these rights, which 

 materially interfere with the protection and systematic management 

 of the forests, will be a work of time, which will require much care, 



