Men imported from outside the district suffer more from fever than local villagers. If 



men are imported in any numbers the following percentages may be written off as unfit for 

 work : 



November j March 1 July | 



December [ . April Liv / August 0/ 



January f ' May September 



February June October 



Owing to the presence of minute particles of mica in the water, workmen suffer much 

 from bowel complaints and skin irritation. Daring the cold weather months the forests are 

 infested with ticks whose bites cause great itchiness and frequently run to sores. 



6. The surrounding villages are small, and chiefly inhabited by Gonds and Baigas- 

 Agricultural customs and The cultivators' requirements are small, being limited to a certain 



wants of the surrounding amount of wood and bamboos for burning, building, agricultural 

 population. implements and fencing. There is also a demand for grazing 



during the rains, when crops and flooded rivers limit the village grazing grounds. Nistar 

 paidawar and grazing are permitted under the commutation system which is discussed in 

 Chapter IX of this Working Plan. 



The agricultural methods and customs of the Gonds and other cultivators surrounding the 

 forest are those common to tribes similarly situated elsewhere in the Central Provinces and 

 need not be described in detail here. It will not be out of place, however, to describe more 

 fullv the customs of the surrounding population of Baigas, who look upon the forest as their 

 primary source of subsistence, and consequently have a considerable effect on the forest 

 growth. 



7. Nearly every village adjoining the forest has a population of Baigas attached to it 



who subsist in a precarious way by doing work for the cultivators 



Customs of the Baigas ,, i . * _ ", r -Y-. 



especially, as regards supplying them with forest produce. I hese 



Baigas forebears had been in the habit of practising " shifting cultivation' 1 locally termed 

 " Bewar", in what at present constitutes reserved forest, and it is to them we owe the large blanks 

 which are found in the Sal forest, such as Parsa, Tola, Kopedabra, Kanha, &c. In these places 

 the Baigas had apparently made more or less permanent settlements, but owing to the severe 

 famine of 1874 they were abandoned and have not been re-occupied. The subsequent creation 

 of the reserve in 1879 has since excluded them. The present generation of Baigas have not 

 as yet settled down to cultivation. They still largely depend on the reserve for their subsist- 

 ence, into which they make excursions for several days at a time, collecting fruits, hunting and 

 fishing. 



Fishing consists in damming streams and poisoning pools with Tinsa bark in consequence 

 of which most of the Tinsa trees in the reserve have been ruined. In other ways also the 

 Baiga is destructive, he is inordinately fond of using his axe. 



In order to rob a bee's nest they will notch a fine Sal tree to the top or will even cut the 

 tree down. The same applies to the collection of Ral. For the sake of this comparatively 

 worthless minor product, great numbers of the finest Sal trees have been and are being annu- 

 ally felled. In remote parts of the forest what would amount to heavy fellings have been fcund 

 made by Baigas for the sake of Ral. There is no doubt also that most of the forest fires are 

 due to Baigas who have entered the forest on some expedition. They are also inveterate 

 poachers and by means of traps, stakes, pits and spears they account annually for a large head 

 of game. 



Baigas, on the other hand, have their redeeming qualities. They are first rate axemen, 

 and as such are very useful when fellings have to be made. They are the men who clear 

 and burn the fire lines annually at which they are experts, and they are especially useful in 

 burning internal fire lines in remote places, where it is difficult to induce others to work. It 

 also falls to their lot to collect Harra, Bee's wax, dropped horns, kosa, and without their aid 

 the quantity of minor forest produce realized would seriously diminish. 



What is required in order to redeem the Baigas is firstly to induce them to settle and 

 cultivate and look upon the soil as their primary means of support ; secondly, to prevent them 

 making independent expeditions into the forest ; and thirdly, to give them plenty of regulated 

 employment of a congenial nature inside the reserve of which there is abundance to keep them 

 busy. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE COMPOSITION AND CONDITION OF THE FORESTS. 



8. The forest consists of a compact block 1 5 miles long by 10 miles broad. The total area 



of 62,512 acres is composed of three distinct types of forest, namely, 

 Distribution and area. m i xe d, Sal, and grass land which have been carefully mapped and are 



found in the following proportions : 



Acres. 



Mixed forest ... 3 



Sal forest ... - 18,672 



Blank 8 >594 



Teak 



Forest villages ... ... 379 



