340 India. 



5. Forest Treatment. 



With the irregular distribution of forests, the pecu- 

 liarities of Indian government affairs and population, 

 and the wild and difficult forest conditions themselves, 

 it is but natural that the work thus far has been chiefly 

 one of organization, survey, and protection. 



In the protection against unlawful felling or timber 

 stealing and grazing, the Government of India has 

 shown itself fully equal to the occasion by a liberal 

 policy of supplying villagers in proximity of the forests 

 with fuel, building material, pasture, etc., at reduced 

 prices or gratis. Over $1,000,000 worth is thus dis- 

 posed of annually, the incentive to timber stealing 

 being thereby materially reduced. A reasonable and 

 just permit system for grazing, where again the needs 

 of the neighboring villagers are most carefully con- 

 sidered, not only brings the government a yearly 

 revenue of nearly $800,000 but enables the people to 

 pasture about 2,000,000 head of animals in the State 

 forests without doing any material damage to tree 

 growth. Of the reserved forest area, however, 38%, 

 and of the protected 20% were closed to grazing in 

 1902, or only 17% of the total forest area. 



The work of preventing and fighting fires can with 

 the means available not be carried on over the entire 

 forest area, of which large tracts are not even crossed 

 by a footpath, and in a land where the regular firing of 

 the woods has become the custom of the centuries, 

 and where, in addition, intensely hot and dry weather, 

 together with a most luxuriant growth of giant grasses, 

 render these jungle fires practically unmanageable. 

 Each year, however, additional territory is brought 



