FOREST OFFENCES. 59 



c. Contravention of Forest Police Regulations. 



The offences comprised under the above heading are infrac- 

 tions of police regulations made for the public welfare, or in 

 the interests of forest conservancy. No damage need result 

 from such offences, as for instance from kindling a fire in a 

 forest which may become extinguished without causing a 

 forest fire, although there is an imminent probability that 

 such a calamity will happen, and this probability necessitates 

 the stringent prohibition of such an act. Offences of this 

 nature may be placed in the following groups : 



(i) Offences against forest control Examples : removal of 

 wood without permission, at a forbidden time, or by a closed 

 road ; collection of dead fallen wood without a permit, on 

 forbidden days, or with prohibited tools, etc. 



(ii) Offences endangering the forest. Examples : lighting a 

 fire ; leaving unexfcinguished a fire lighted with permission of 

 the forest manager ; carelessness in burning charcoal or lime ; 

 smoking pipes without covers ; going into a forest with 

 torches, etc. 



(iii) Acts preparatory to a forest offence, which are conse- 

 quently prohibited : Examples : trespass by climbing over 

 fences, carrying axes or saws in a forest without permission, 

 injury to notices, etc. Forest trespass (in closed places, off 

 regular paths, etc.) where this is made penal by law. 



Many forest offences comprise damage or misappropriation, 

 as well as contravention of regulations; as for instance injury 

 to growing trees by transport on a prohibited road, kindling a 

 fire in a forest with misappropriated wood, etc. 



Such complications may involve several heads of charge in 

 the prosecution case, or call for severer punishment than 

 offences of a simpler nature. 



4. Protective Measures. 



Protective measures against forest offences may be either 

 direct or indirect. The latter chiefly involve removal of the 

 cause of offences, and the former are directed against the 

 offence itself ; it is, however, difficult to draw the line between 

 them. 



