( 8 ) 

 Abstract of preceding Statement. 



i ARTICLE 2. State oj the Boundaries. 



27. Where the limits of the forests are not defined by watercourses, they are demarcated 

 by means of cleared lines 40 feet wide, set out at all angles with stone cairns about 5 feet 

 high, in the centre of each of which is fixed a wooden post bearing the proper consecutive 

 number. From every mark, the nearest one on either side is clearly visible. Many of these 

 cairns are in bad repair and the posts in most cases decayed. The boundary lines are cleared 

 every year. 



In the Singrampur Reserve and on a part of the boundary of the Mugra Forest (Central 

 Kange), the stone cairns are replaced by round masonry pillars about 4^ feet high. 



ARTICLE 3. Legal Position of the Forests. 



28. All the forests of classes A, B-I and B-II have been reserved under Section 34 of the 

 Indian Forest Act of 1878 by Chief Commissioner's Notification No. 886 published in the 

 Central Provinces Gazette of 20th February 1879. There is thus absolutely no distinction 

 between them so far as their legal position is concerned. By class A is meant that the forests 

 comprised thereunder are intended to be permanently maintained as State forests. Under B-I 

 are included all those areas which, having been found suitable for cultivation in B-II class 

 Reserves, have accordingly been excised and placed under the Land Revenue Department for 

 ryotwari settlement, although they have still to be formally disforested. Thus class B-II at 

 last actually includes only such areas as have been found unsuitable for cultivation and which 

 should therefore now be transferred to class A. Proposals for such transfer are already before 

 the Administration. 



29. The unclassed areas comprise certain superfluous Government waste lands which 

 not being required by the Land Revenue Department, have been handed over for management 

 to the Forest Department and will ere long, if found suitable, be settled as Reserved Forests 

 under Chapter II of the Indian Forests Act, 1878. 



ARTICLE 4. Rights. 



30. No rights or concessions of any kind burden these forests. 



ARTICLE 5. Composition and Condition of the Crop. 



31. Owing to the generally uniform character of the rock and soil found throughout 

 the forests of this Division, as noted in para. 10 above, there is, as might be expected, only 

 one marked type of forest, that characteristic of the dry , hill forests of Central India. Owing 

 to slight differences in the depth of soil, in the amount of moisture contained in the soil or 

 in the character of the sub-soil, certain species predominate over small local areas, but in no 

 case is the difference so marked or area so large as to justify the classification of such 

 forests as distinct sylvicultural types. 



32. At the commencement of the cold season, towards the end of November, a casual 

 observer, travelling through these forests and looking from a distance at a range of forest- 

 clad hills, could scarcely fail to be struck with the fact, that the growth seems to be divided 

 into three definite zones or belts. Along the valley and stretching a short distance up the 

 hillside is a belt of fresh dark-green ; this is divided by a sharp line from the zone which 

 occupies the middle slopes, the prevailing colours there being fresh browns, russet reds and 

 yellows, while these again fade away more gradually into the uppermost belt occupying 

 the highest slopes and plateaux, which is characterised by dull yellows, greys and neutral 

 tints. 



33. On a closer inspection the lowest dark-green belt is found to occupy the moist 

 deep soil on the banks of a watercourse and in its immediate neighbourhood. The under- 

 growth is a tangled mass of shrubs and climbers, the green makor, karonda, rori, kat-umar 

 and kau bushes, with the great plate-like leaves of mahol and the climbing ramdatdn and 

 bhaonria-chheula being most noticeable. Above these stretch the umbrageous crowns of 

 fine saj, mahua, koha, umar and gurar trees, while further from the stream, the dark-green 

 of khair, fresh light green of bhira and the foliage of numerous other trees all combine to 

 form this zone of many tinted greens. Only here and there is a yellowing gunja leaf or the 

 red foliage of kenkra to be seen, and only occasionally do the deep orange red leaves of khatua 

 or the dark crimson of the young shoots of kumbhi or of banda (Loramthus) vary the prevail- 

 ing tint. 



