Property Conditions. 329 



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 Fores Act, passed in 

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

 basis upon which the rights of forest property were to 

 be settled. These acts divide the forests into three 

 classes, namely, those in which the right of the State is 

 absolute; those in which the State has property rights, 

 but W'hich are burdened with prescriptive or granted 

 rights of user; and those which are private property, 

 but on which the Stat reserves the right to cut certain 

 kinds of trees for government use, Teak, Sandalwood, 

 and in some parts Deodar, these being considered 

 "royal trees." The forest act being throughout ap- 

 plicable onlj'' at the choice and under the construction 

 of the provincial governments, modified acts, applicable 

 to different parts of the Empire, and different in details, 

 were passed from time to time, and many different 

 local rules were issued by the provincial governments, 

 but all agree in fixing one definite policy, namely 

 declaration or demarcation of government forests, after 

 inquiry into all existing rights, and division of the 

 declared government forests into reserves and protected 

 forests, and unclassed, the former as permanent govern- 

 ment reserves, the latter still open to change in owner- 

 ship, and adjustment in rights of user, etc. 



The absolute and relative areas of government prop- 

 erty, therefore, are continuously changing. In 1900 

 the reserve forests comprised 81,400 square miles, or 

 8.6% of the total territory controlled by the British 

 government; the protected forest 8800 square miles. 



