314 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIEI DISTRICT. 



Mr. Sullivan 

 proposes a 

 survey. 



Bevenne of 

 Nilagiris. 



PART I. 



(a.) Cultivating Tribes — The Badagas, Kotas, Irulas^ Kiirumbas. 



First settlement of the Nilagiris. — Mr. Sullivan proposes a survey. — Revenue. — 

 Rates of assessment. — Changes i^roposed, 1862. — The shifting system. — "Ain" 

 grass and " Grazing" puttas. — Revenue Board's proposals. — Decision of Govern- 

 ment. — Revision of assessment. — Rates settled by Government — approved by 

 Secretary of State. — Settlement introduced — extends to plateau only. — State 

 of revenue accounts. — Settlement of Kundas. — Lands for cultivation to be 

 obtained under Waste Land Rules only. — Effects of the measure. — Kotas and 

 other aboriginal cultivators. — Mode of assessing lands. 



I have above very briefly sketched the first recorded pymash, 

 or settlement based on measurements^ of the Coimbatore District, 

 as its effects extended to the Nilagiri plateau, raising the revenue 

 from Rupees 13,425 to Rupees 18,267. I say its effects, for 

 Mr. Sullivan, in a letter to the Board of Revenue, 6th March 

 1819, states that although surveyors were sent in 1800-1 to the 

 Nilagiris, they did not stay, but " sent accounts of their work, and 

 it was taken for granted that they had completed it.^' On 

 ascending the Hills he found that the survey was entirely nominal, 

 and that not an acre of land had been measured. '' The extreme 

 inclemency of the climate indeed,^' he goes on to say, "frightened 

 the surveyors and prevented them from doing more than making 

 an estimate of the quantity and quality of the land, and of 

 fixing the old rates of teerwa upon it." He accordingly proposed 

 to survey the lands at a cost of Rupees 800, not with any 

 intention of attempting a new classification or of interfering with 

 the existing rates of assessment, which he regarded as extremely 

 favorable to the ryots, but simply to ascertain accurately the 

 extent of their occupations. With this letter he forwarded the 

 following statement of the revenue derived from the Hills during 

 the nineteen years ending 1818, which is interesting. He attri- 

 buted the falling off in receipts to the want of a road. The 

 survey was approved by Government, but I have not been able 

 to trace any report of its completion : — 



RS. RS. 



Fasli 1209 



„ 1210 



„ 1211 



„ 1212 



„ 1213 



„ 1214 



„ 1215 



„ 1216 



„ 1217 



„ 1218 



15,067 



15,067 



12,055 



10,052 



9,639 



9,533 



14,350 



8,393 



8,925 



