MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 



distribution, being found in the coastal forests of Africa, 

 extending eastwards through India, the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, and Philippines to Australia. In India, however, 

 though many of these trees and shrubs are found along 

 the coast, it is only in a few localities that the forests 

 extend over large areas of country, in most cases such 

 areas being situated in the estuaries of large rivers; thus 

 the most extensive mangrove forests are to be found on 

 the Arakan and South Tenasserim coasts, the Sunder- 

 bans, Andaman Isles, and to a less extent on the Bassein 

 Coast of Burma. It is proposed to deal with each area 

 separately, so as to give a clear idea of the possibilities 

 of each locality. 



(f) Mangrove Forests of the Arakan Coast. 



The tidal forests of Arakan are nearly all situated 

 between the mouth of the Mayu River in the Akyab 

 District and that of the Kaleindaung River in the 

 Sandoway Sub-division, of which quite two-thirds are 

 situated in Kyaukpyu Sub-division, which lies midway 

 between these two rivers. The exact area covered by 

 mangrove forests is not known, but Mr. Hamilton, the 

 Sub-divisional Forest Officer, who is well acquainted with 

 the district, estimates it to be over 2,000 square miles. 

 He has actually surveyed 323 square miles, and estimates 

 the mapped portion to be about one-sixth of the total 

 area. The tidal area is covered by three types of forest. 

 Those at the lowest level contain various species of man- 

 grove, of which Rhizophora mucronata and Rhizophora 

 conjugate* are the most important; the next belt of forest 

 somewhat higher up consists of the same species mixed 

 with a valuable timber-yielding tree, known as " Sundri " 

 (Heritiera minor), and finally, the highest areas covered 

 by the tide are covered by pure " Sundri " forests. 



In order to arrive at an estimate of yield per acre or 

 for the total area, Mr. Hamilton, after carrying out his 

 surveys, laid out an acre sample plot, in which he felled 

 the mangrove trees and stripped them of their bark, with 

 the result t'hat 6,760 lb., or about three tons of green 

 bark, was collected and 2,500 c. ft. of stacked fuel. From 

 his survey he obtained the following data: 



