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CHAPTER III. SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. 

 ARTICLE 1 . Past and Present Systems of Management. 



43. The first semblance of management began with the introduction of the Waste Land 

 Rules in 1862, when the cutting of teak, saj, shisham and bija without the sanction of the 

 Deputy Commissioner was forbidden. For these kinds of timber permits were granted, 

 but with regard to other trees people could cut what they liked and where they liked. At 

 first annual farms were given out, which conferred the right of collecting fees on unreserved 

 kinds of timber and other produce. In 1865 or thereabouts, these forests were brought 

 under the regime of the first Forest Act as Unreserved Forests, still continuing however to 

 remain under the direct management of the Deputy Commissioner, assisted by a Darogah, 

 and to be treated as land which was to be ultimately given up for cultivation. The system 

 of management remained unaltered and the only connection with the Forest Department 

 was in the fact that the revenue and expenditure were included in the accounts of the 

 Department. In 1867-68 the Conservator gave it as his opinion that under the system of 

 annual farms nothing whatever was done in the interests of forest conservancy, the forests 

 were deteriorating and the farmers oppressing the people. In 1868-69 the Singrampur 

 ramna was finally demarcated and came under departmental management. It was placed in 

 charge of the Darogah at Gwari Ghat, a portion of whose establishment was detailed for the 

 duty. About 1870-71 the system of annual leases gave way to one of commutation, under 

 which people were allowed to cut where and what they liked as before, on payment of an 

 annual commutation fee of Re. 1 per household. In 1876-77, the license system was intro- 

 duced, commutation being still allowed on a smaller scale. This was rather a change in the 

 method of collecting the revenue, and the system of managing the forests remained practi- 

 cally unaltered. In 1879, the forests were notified as Reserves under the Indian Forest Act of 

 1878, but it was not until 1886-87 that the remainder of the forests were brought under 

 departmental management. Finally, in 1893, a system of located fellings was established, 

 which was, however, soon given up. Since then various working plans have been prepared 

 and abandoned until the present one was finally drawn up in 1 898-99. 



The old system of commutation is maintained to a small extent, villagers living in the 

 remoter parts of the district, where the working of the system of single-load licenses is 

 practically impossible without the maintenance of a considerable additional staff of paid license- 

 Vendors, being still allowed to commute for dead wood, grass, thorns, leaves and fibre. 



AKTICLE 2. Special Works of Improvement undertaken. 



44. Such works have been (A) Fire-prevention, (B) Cultural operations. (C) Improve- 

 ment fellings, (D) Sylvicultural experiments, (E; Lac propagation, and (F) Buildings. 



45. (A) Fire-prevention. This was commenced in the Singrampur ramna in 1871, in 

 the Singhpur ramna 1875, in the Baraiyakhera, Sehri, Tindi, Phular and Bansipur ramnas 

 in 1878, and in the Mariadoh ramna in 1885; these areas having probably been closed to 

 grazing about the same time. Systematic measures in the Division generally were, however, 

 not undertaken until 1893. The extent to which such measures have been successful during 

 the past four years is shown in the subjoined statement : 



These areas have been under what is known as " special protection," i.e., have been 

 isolated by fire traces and patrolled by a special staff of fire-guards employed from February 

 16th to the setting in of the rains at Rs.4 per month. Besides these areas all the remaining 

 forests of the Division are under what is known as simple protection, which is not protec- 

 tion in the technical sense of the word, but only such safeguarding as can be compassed by the 

 ordinary staff and with the aid of .Section 25 (6) of the Forest Act. The expensive system of 

 special protection is confined to tkose areas where the less expensive systems would not suffice 

 owing to the value of the forests or to their being except 'onally liable to fire. 



46, (B) Cultural operations. In 1874 a bamboo plantation was established at 

 Kishan Tal, about 1 mile from Damon city by Colonel Thompson, who was then Deputy Com- 

 missioner. Seeds of Bambusa arundinacea and Dendrocalamtis strictus were sown on the 



