MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



323 



is, whether it was cultivated by the plough er, or the hoe kottu, CHAP, Xiir, 



instead of the possession of the right of using a plough or hoe, yet PART l. 



this change had not been sufficiently perfected to find a place in revenue 



the revenue accounts ; but the ryot still received a putta nominally Histoky. 



for the right to use a plough or hoe, and not for so much land ; for 



the former privilege he paid Rupea 1 to Rupees 1-8, and for the 



latter 4 to 8 annas ; but the extent of land over which the right 



was to be exercised did not appear in the pntta. Armed with 



this document he cultivated whatever land he liked and wherever 



situated. The result was that often fresh forest land was cleared 



whenever the land already under the plough or hoe began to show 



signs of exhaustion. The " Bhurty " system can hardly be said 



to have prevailed here, but an almost unrestricted and unlimited 



right to ear the ground and delve at choice. Mr. Grant reported 



that he had had the lands occupied by these Kunda Badagas 



in 1862-63 (Fasli 1272) roughly surveyed by the taluk officials 



and classified according to the productiveness of the soil, and 



assessed at the five new rates. The total area was ascertained to 



be 1,220 acres, of which 118 acres appertained to the first class, 



assessed at 10 annas, 43 to the second, 606 to the third, and 299 



and 154 acres to the fourth and fifth classes respectively. The total 



net assessment, after deducting Rupees 10 for ain grass, was 



Rupees 404, against Rupees 434, the settlement of the previous 



fasli. " The small decrease of Rupees 30,^' remarked Mr. Grant, 



'^is nothing when the advantages of the new system are considered 



with reference not only to the Kunda, but to the other villages 



on the Hills. The door to much fraud has been closed, and the 



sources of endless disputes and false claims to lands have been 



swept away ; whilst the Burghers and Government have both 



immediately benefited, the former by the reduction of assessment 



and the latter by an increased revenue.'^ These words read 



strangely after the lapse and experience of fifteen years ; and 



it is to be regretted that the survey and settlement made by 



Mr. Grant had not been more complete. In the Kundas, more 



especially, was the work so indifferently performed, that the 



particulars entered in the new puttas of area were utterly 



unreliable, whilst no boundaries were given, the only clue to the 



identification of the land being its name or designation. This 



usually helped to fix the rate only but not its area. Sources of 



dispute and false claims to lands, so far from being swept away, 



were rather more numerous and fruitful than heretofore. 



In making the settlement of the lands held by the cultivating ciritiv^ation bv 

 tribes on the plateau,^ Mr. Grant had proclaimed that henceforth hiii-tribes 



only to be 



obtained by 

 ^ It must not be forgotten that this settlement extended only to the plateau auction under 

 and higher slopes. The ancient settlement still exists in the tracts at the foot of Waste Land 

 the ghiitsin the Moyar valley. Rales, 



