388 India. 



which 20 per cent, was given to grantees or those 

 holding rights of user free of charge, and less than 

 2 per cent, was exported. In addition, over 200 million 

 bamboos and nearly two million dollars worth of by- 

 products, such as lac, caoutchuc, cutch, gambier, 

 myrobalans, were secured. 



2. Property Conditions. 



Prior to the British occupation, the native rulers, 

 or rajahs, laid claim to a certain proportion of the 

 produce from all cultivators of the soil. They also 

 reserved absolute right to the forests, and to all un- 

 seated or waste lands, although usually the people 

 were allowed to supply their needs from these. The 

 English government, by right of conquest, fell heir 

 to these rights as well as to the properties, but, with- 

 out care in asserting its rights, the unimpeded use of 

 unguarded forest property led to the assertion of rights 

 of user by the people, and such were also sometimes 

 granted by the government. "Joint village" com- 

 munities in some parts, i.e., settlements which occupy 

 contiguous areas, claimed and occupied large areas 

 of forest and waste as commons, and in general the 

 original property rights of the government became 

 uncertain. 



The necessity of bringing order into this question led 

 to various so-called settlements, by which the rights 

 were defined, properties de-limited, and payment in 

 kind changed into cash payments. 



After attempts to regulate these matters by local 

 rules, the first general Indian Forest Act, passed in 

 1865, modified by the Forest Act of 1878, laid down 



