5 



manner the forest is gradually encroaching on the grass lands, but the process is an exceed- 

 ingly slow one, it is useful, however, in indicating the lines along which any attempts at 

 artificial reproduction must proceed. 



Grass lands are caused in the first instance by a number of trees having been destroyed 

 in one spot, so that the shelter was removed, subsequently frost has prevented regeneration. 

 Man has been the chief agency in this matter. 



All the extensive blanks existing at present were at one time village sites 



15. Fire and frost are the two chief injuries to which the crop is liable. Great precautions 



against fire should be taken as it not only does inestimable damage 



is liabl J e Uri< Fire WhiCh "^ ' =r P in itself > but also > bv P enin g out the forest > introduces frost, where- 

 by the damage becomes a lasting one. Owing to the quantities 



of grass and the inflammable nature of sal wood, fires are more than usually difficult to extin- 

 guish and from time to time the Reserve has been almost completely burned over. The last 

 great fire which occurred was in 1897 when the forest burned for six weeks. The damage 

 then done is still clearly seen on the ground. Many of the larger trees were completely 

 burned down or are still standing black and charred. Others, again, were partially burned, 

 but are still living and of little use even as shelter wood. All the young undergrowth had 

 been burned out and is only now coming up again from the root, and many poles had been 

 entirely killed out and have not reproduced themselves. 



The most serious damage, however, done by the fire was in thinning out the forest and 

 admitting frost. 



16. Two large areas in the Kanha and Kisli blocks, amounting to 2,572 acres have, owing 



Frost to fires and subsequent frost, been necessarily for the present 



excluded from the coupes prescribed in this Working Plan. These 



areas are now covered by charred trees of large size with an undergrowth of grass, palms 

 and sal seedlings, which latter are yearly frosted back and show no signs of establishing 

 themselves in the near future. Besides these areas there are a larger number of smaller areas, 

 similarly ruined, which have been found too small to map, but whose total acreage must be 

 large. 



Frost is especially severe in the low lying parts, in hollows and in blanks, and annually 

 kills off a large number of poles besides killing off all seedlings found in blanks and thui 

 effectually preventing regeneration. 



Along the edge of blanks frost kills off all the lower branches of sal trees up to a height of 

 15 or 20 feet according to the severity of the frost, with the result that the trees become 

 either topsore or covered with epicormic branches both of which have an injurious effect on 

 the timber. 



17. Climbers do much damage to sal trees and have killed and destroyed many. They 

 Climbers are es P ec ' a "y liable to develop in an area that has been worked 



over. Provisions are made in this Working Plan in order to curtail 

 the damage as much as possible. 



It has been noticed that climbers are particularly numerous in the higher portions of the 

 sal forest in shallow and stony ground. 



Climbers are very numerous in the mixed forests and appear on the hill sides like a dense 

 belt extending from about 1 to up the hill. There is no doubt they spread from there into 

 the adjoining sal forest, but prescriptions for dealing with them in such places would for the 

 present be out of place. 



1 8. Serious damage by insects to healthy trees has not been noticed. But a defoliating 



Insects caterpillar does much damage in the Motinala and Phen Reserves 



and it is therefore probable that the same insect occurs periodically 



in the Banjar Valley Eeserve. Trees when felled are readily bored by a large species of 

 beetle. 



Many apparently sound trees when felled were found to contain a circular hole, or knot 

 extending throughout the hole, which greatly detracts from the value of the timber. The 

 cause is not known, but it is probably fire or frost or both. The number of unsound 

 trees varies greatly in localities ranging from 10 to 40 per cent. 



CHAPTER III. 



SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. 



19. Past and present system of managements have both been irregular. The Reserve 



has hitherto been worked at intervals, according as a demand arose, 



of management 5 anc * in consequence the forests have at times oeen overworked and 



then allowed to remain unworked for a number of years, until the 

 next demand arose. 



