FOREST RIGHTS. 73 



5. Practical Principles of Law regarding Forest Rights. 



The following short statement of legal principles, all of 

 which are based on broad rules recognised in all systems of 

 civilised law, will be found useful : 



(a) There can be no such thing as a right to destroy the 

 estate or do wanton mischief (e.g. burn a forest). 



(b) The right-holder is in no sense a part-owner of the 

 forest. When a part of the forest is separated and given over 

 to him, such a proceeding is at the option of the owner, as a 

 means of compensating for and getting rid of the right. 



(c) The right is always a limited one ; it can be exercised so 

 only if while fully and fairly enjoyed it does not attack the 

 substance of the forest : it can never exceed the normal regular 

 yield of the forest nor its capacity to bear the right without 

 deterioration in the case of grazing, soil-litter, etc. etc. 



(d) When a right is undefined in its character, and has not 

 been reduced to definite terms, it is always understood to be 

 limited to the actual needs of the person, or the dominant estate 

 (as the case may be), in his or its normal condition as it was 

 when the right originated. If a peasant has a right to wood 

 for "building his house," it means such a house as is 

 usual in the locality, not a large villa or whole range of farm- 

 buildings.* 



(e) The right must be exercised so as to interfere as little as 

 possible with the regular management proper to forests of the 

 normally existing class or kind ; it cannot prevent the restora- 

 tion of an ill-used forest, or the proper planting operations and 

 production of young growth. 



(/) On the other hand, the forest owner cannot claim to 

 alter the character of the forest, or its general destination 

 so as to affect rights ; and where one mode of proper work- 

 ing would provide for the rights while another would not, 

 the owner must make his working-plan so as to provide for 

 the rights.! 



* See Baden-Powell, " Forest Law," p. 290.#", 328. 



t See " Forest Law," p. 294 ./. In England we have a recent example which 

 illustrates the rule that a forest owner cannot alter the entire destination and 

 character of his estate to the prejudice of right-holders ; and at the same time is 

 a rare instance of forest rights being beneficial (from a forest point of view). In 

 the case of Epping Forest, the right possessed by the commoners to lop the trees 



