( 36 ) 



CHAPTER IV. SUPPLEMENTARY REGULATIONS, 

 ARTICLE 1. Cleanings, Thinnings or other Improvement Fellings. 



108. Cleanings and thinnings as independent operations are entirely excluded by the 

 extreme cheapness of small wood, which would not permit of more than a fraction of their 

 cost being recouped. They must therefore form an integral part of the fellings prescribed in 

 paragraphs 99 and 102 above, and as regards the areas to be treated as coppice-with-standards, 

 their absence will be of little consequence, as our most valuable species are well able to take 

 care of themselves in the respective localities and soils which they affect. During the course 

 of a rotation some stems are bound to die or get broken. If there is a demand for them for 

 nistar or for the supply of a neighbouring town, they should of course be removed. If such 

 removal is to be effected by the purchasers themselves, then for the safety of the forest no 

 coupe should be visited for the purpose for five years after it has been felled and not oftener 

 than once in three years thereafter. Such removals will be arranged for by the Conservator 

 in the Annual Plans of Operations. 



ARTICLE 2. Regulation of Grazing. 



109. Every area worked as prescribed in paragraphs 99, 100 and 101 and enumerated 

 under paragraph 106 will be closed to grazing for ten consecutive years immediately after it 

 has been felled over : on no other condition will the advantages expected from the prescribed 

 treatment be secured. It is on this account, in order always to have a sufficient area open 

 for the grazing requirements of neighbouring villagers, that for felling series where grazing 

 is of importance a rotation of as much as 30 years has been adopted and that the succession of 

 coupes has been so arranged as always to leave a sufficient open area near each village in need 

 of grazing. Also see paragraph 93 and second sentence of paragraph 106 above. 



In the nistar series (paragraph 107) there will be no restrictions laid on the grazing of 

 cattle beyond the prevention of overgrazing in areas containing promising forest. Such preven- 

 tion 'can be automatically secured without any real hardship on the people by gradually 

 raising the grazing fees leviable in those areas until the number of head is reduced to the 

 maximum allowable, the rest being driven to areas where no such restriction is called for. 



Thus the aggregate acreage closed to grazing out of the total of 327,785 acres included 

 in A Class Reserves will at no time exceed 86,800 acres or 26 per cent. For the first nine 

 years it will be less. Hitherto, with only a. small area worked over, it has averaged 14 per 

 cent. 



Goats and camels will, for obvious reasons, be absolutely excluded from the forests. 

 ARTICLE 3. Works of Artificial Reproduction. 



110. Nothing will be done under this head departmentally beyond the scattering of 

 teak, bamboo, khair and tinsa seed immediately after, or better still, simultaneously with, 

 the exploitation of the coupe without any preliminary preparation of the ground, those places 

 being selected for the operation which are most favourable for the development of the several 

 species. On the other hand, if the co-operation of the surrounding population can be enlisted 

 for it, the plan of combined agriculture and forestry now about to be described will be adopt- 

 ed on as large a scale as possible. 



111. In most of the coupes of the Regular Felling Series there will be found compact 

 stretches of soil suitable for temporary cultivation, such soils, in short, as can bear crops for 

 only 2 4 years in succession and require a long period of fallow to recover again their tem- 

 porary fertility. As soon as a coupe has been worked or, better still, in the very year in which 

 it is worked, persons accustomed to this nomadic style of cultivation should be given tempor- 

 ary allotments to cultivate on the following terms : 



(i) No individual allotment to exceed 10 acres. 



(ii) Existing stools of forest trees, except such as may, with the previous special permis- 

 sion of the Department be grubbed out, to be carefully preserved although he may, as long 

 as he holds it, cut down all and any shoots which interfere with his cultivation. This condition 

 will not preclude him from cutting through small or moderate-sized roots which come in the 

 way of his plough. 



(iii) Seeds of such of the more valuable forest species as the Divisional Forest Officer 

 may prescribe, to be collected by the cultivator and sown simultaneously with his own crop; 



(iv) As consideration for the due fulfilment of conditions (ii) and (iii), the cultivator 

 to be entitled to free nistar and free grazing for four head of cattle and to cultivate his 

 holding until he relinquishes it of his own accord. 



The areas selected for such combined agri-sylvicultural treatment will obviously be 

 those open, almost treeless wastes which after years of so-called conservation are in the very 

 same condition now as that in which we received them. The field cultivation will have the 

 effect of loosening and cleaning the soil for the favourable germination of the forest seeds 

 and the after-development of the young plants, so that most of these will have become fully 



