INDIAN FOREST MANAGEMENT. 261 



no longer be supplied without costly transportation, the matter at last received public attention. 

 In 1S.")(>, Dr. D. I'.randis was appointed superintendent of forests for Pegu; in ISl'.l! lie was charged 

 with the duty of organizing a forest department for all India, and in 1804: he was appointed the 

 first inspector-general for the forests of India. During the thirty-four years of its existence this 

 department has steadily and rapidly grown in the area managed, the number of men employed, 

 and the revenue derived for the State. In 1804-95 this forestry department had control of about 

 1 1:2,900 square miles of forest, nearly half of all the forests, and about 12 per cent of the entire 

 area of India. Of these State forests, 74,000 square miles are " reserve" or permanent State forests, 

 while the rest are held as "protected" and "unclassed," a large portion of which will become 

 reserve or permanent forests as fast as the necessary surveys and settlement can be made. 



With the irregular distribution of forests, the peculiarities of Indian affairs, and the unsurveyed 

 wild, and difficult conditions of the forests themselves, it is but natural that the work thus far 

 has been chierty one of organization, survey, and protection, and to a far less degree an attempt 

 at improvement both by judicious cutting and reforestation. 



Over 33,000 square miles have been surveyed for forest purposes since 1874. and over 4,000 

 square miles were added during the year 1894-95, at a cost of over $200,000. 



\Vork of establishing and maintaining boundary lines, which is often a very difficult and 

 costly matter in the dense tropical jungles, involved during the same year an expense of over 

 $40,000, and there are at present about (50,000 miles of such boundary lines maintained. Besides 

 this survey work proper, there is a large force constantly at work to ascertain the amount and 

 condition of timber supplies and to prepare suitable plans for their exploitation and improvement, 

 so that about 12 per cent of the entire forest area, or over 570,000 acres, is by this time managed 

 with definite working plans as to amount of timber to be cut, what areas to be thinned, reforested, 

 etc. The work of protection is chiefly one of preventing and fighting fires. This protection with 

 present means can not be carried on over the entire forest areas, of which large tracts are not cvt n 

 crossed by a footpath, and in a land where the regular firing of the woods has become the custom 

 of centuries, and where, in addition, intensely hot and dry weather, together with a most luxuriant 

 growth of giant grasses, render these jungle fires practically unmanageable. In all forests near 

 settlements the forest must be isolated by broad "fire traces" or otherwise. In the jungle forests 

 these traces must be broad; the grass, often taller than an elephant, must be cut and burned 

 before the grass on either side is dry enough to burn. Similarly, the traces in the long leaf pine 

 forests must be very wide and first converted into grass strips, cut or kept clean by burning. I:i 

 spite of the unusual difficulties there were in 1894-95 over 33,000 square miles protected against 

 fire, and on only 8 per cent of this area did the element succeed in doing any damage. In this 

 work, too, great progress has been made during the last twenty years; the efficiency has steadily 

 increased, and the expense, about 810 per square mile iu 1883, has been reduced to less than half. 



In the protection against unlawful felling or timber stealing and grazing, the Government 

 of India has shown itself fully equal to the occasion by a liberal policy of supplying villagers 

 in proximity to the forests with fuel, etc., at reduced prices or gratis. Over $2,000,000 worth was 

 thus disposed of in 1894-95, the incentive to timber stealing being thereby materially reduced. 

 A reasonable and just permit system of grazing, where again the needs of the neighboring 

 villagers are most carefully considered, not only brings the Government a yearly revenue of nearly 

 $800,000, but enables the people to graze about 3,000,000 head of animals in the State forests 

 without doing any material damage to tree growth. 



Though the forests of India are now, and will continue for some time to be, little more than 

 wild woods, with some protection and a' reasonable system of exploitation, in place of a mere 

 robbing or culling system, yet the work of actually improving the forests steadily increases in 

 amount and perfection. 



In the large teak forests of Burma, as well as other provinces, care is had in helping this 

 valuable timber to propagate itself; the useless kinds of trees are girdled, huge climbers are cut 

 off, and a steady war is waged against all species detrimental to teak regeneration. Where the 

 teak has entirely disappeared, even planting is resorted to. Thus in Burma over 35,000 acres 

 have been restocked with teak by means of taungyas, or plantations, where the native is allowed 

 to bum down a piece of woods, use it for a few years as field (though it is never really cleared) on 

 condition of planting it with teak, being paid a certain sum for every hundred trees in a thril'iy 



