9- The outer boundary consists of a cleared line, 30 feet wide, with pillars made of 



upright sal beams fixed in cairns of stones, at corners and con- 

 State of boundaries. 



spicuous points. 



The line is cleared and burned annually as a protection against fire, the pillars, how- 

 ever, are only renewed from time to time as required. Besides the outer boundary just 

 described there is in many places an interior boundary line which was the original boundary 

 line of the fire protected area when the forest was first gazetted in 1879, but has since 

 become an interior line owing to subsequent extensions of the fire protected area in 1889. 

 Since that date it has been neglected and is now only faintly traceable on the ground. There 

 is no reason why it should be maintained. 



10. The forest was declared Reserved Forest in Central Provinces Gazette Notification 



No. 917 A. of March ist 1879, under Section 34 of the Indian 

 Forest Act. In 1889, the area was extended by including 10,880 



acres of the unprotected Malidadar forest within the fire protected area. The Malidadar 

 forest was declared a reserve in Gazette Notification No. 888, dated 22nd February 1879. 



Again, in the year 1894, the area was added to when the Kisli malguzari forest of 750 

 acres in size was obtained. 



This area was declared Reserved Forest in Central Provinces Gazette Notification 

 No. 2462 of 24th May 1894, under Section 19 of Act VII of 1878, Indian Forest Act, being 

 exchanged for an area of the same extent in the Sona forest, Mandla Range. 



The area with which the Working Plan deals is composed of the three areas above 

 mentioned and is known as the Banjar Valley Reserve. 



11. The Reserve is free from all rights. There are two forest villages situated inside 



the Reserve. Of these Kisli has been occupied seme time ; the other, 

 Barnni Dhadar, is an old village site which has been recently 



re-occupied, and as it has not yet been demarcated it has not been shown on the map and the 

 area has been included in the grass land situated inside mixed forest lands. 



The demarcation and mapping of this village is a matter which should be carried out 

 at once. 



It is highly undesirable that more villages should be created inside the Reserve. There 

 is abundance of unoccupied ground outside the Reserve to satisfy all demands for land 

 as well as an ample supply of labour to meet all ordinary requirements. A village situated 

 inside the Reserve greatly increases the danger from fire and the damage done by villagers 

 wandering axe in hand through the forest is great and is difficult to control. 



Besides these there are a number of villages situated in the Mandla and Balaghat districts, 

 which' adjoin the Reserve. The inhabitants of these are permitted to exercise certain 

 privileges of nistar, Paidawar and grazing within the Reserve. 



12. There are three distinct types of forests, namely, mixed, 

 d condition sal, and grass lands, each of which will be described in turn. 



Mixed forest. Mixed forest, excluding blanks according to the stock map, covers 34,850 

 acres of the Reserve. It is composed of those trees and shrubs usually met with in the 

 torests of the Central Provinces, teak, however, except in some parts where it has been- arti- 

 ficially introduced, is absent. The mixed forests are found almost exclusively on the hills, 

 sides and tops, commencing at an elevation of 2,000 feet and extending upwards. The forest 

 is dense and has an undergrowth of bamboos. The height growth is generally poor : as the 

 mixed forest adjoins the sal forest there is a certain area of debatable ground between 

 the two which can best be described as mixed forest containing sal. In preparing the 

 stock map it has been thought sufficient to show as mixed forest even forest containing 

 sal when the sal was not present in workable quantities. Sal trees occruring in mixed 

 being at the limit of their area and therefore in unfavourable conditions, are poor 

 in height growth and often topsore. Teak, where it has been introduced in two places, 

 has thriven well and should later on reproduce itself. Owing to the scarcity of teak in 

 these and surrounding forests more might be done as regards introducing it. The flat 



11 tops called " Dadars " are often covered with grass and only sparsely stocked with trees, 

 they have for the most part been mapped ; but as the present Working Plan deals chiefly with 

 sal and exclusively with sal timber, extending only to mixed forests as regards minor forest 

 produce, it has not been thought necessary to prepare the stock maps of the mixed forest 

 with such care and detail, as the stock maps of the sal forests. From the stock maps the 



ixed forest area is made up 01 mixed forest 34,850 acres, grass land 1,854 acres. None of 

 these 36,704 acres are capable of producing sal timber. 



The names of the trees commonly found in mixed forest have been given in the 

 Appendix. 



