CHAPTEE XII. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF BAMBOO FORESTS. 



TN some cases in the outer hills the bamboo Dendt ocalamus 

 -*- strictus covers large areas and constitutes by far the most 

 important forest crops. This is notably the case in Lansdowne 

 division where the bamboos are of fine quality and form the prin- 

 cipal source of revenue in the division. The bamboo is mixed 

 with sal, Terminaiia tomentosa, Odina Wodier, Anogeissus latifolia 

 and a variety of inferior miscellaneous species. Over large areas 

 sal is absent, in places it forms groups of high forest. A light 

 overwood does the bamboo no harm and is certainly beneficial in 

 early youth, on the other hand a heavy overwood is prejudicial to 

 the quality and productivity of the clumps ; and under the con- 

 ditions of sal high forest such bamboos as are produced are 

 practically worthless. Former working plans for these forests 

 made no attempt to give the bamboo areas any separate treatment 

 or to manage the forest in the interests of the bamboos. Improve- 

 ment fellings passed over the area entirely for the benefit of the 

 tree growth. Blocks were open and closed to bamboo cuttings 

 under certain rules but as these blocks contained enormous 

 areas of totally undeveloped country, only a fraction of the 

 bamboos were cut and removed. Overcutting took place in 

 accessible places and nothing was done elsewhere. The great areas 

 of the open blocks alone prevented the staff from making any 

 serious attempts to enforce the rules for cutting, which still remain 

 more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The only 

 possible way to obtain some sort of supervision is to have small 

 annual coupes arranged so that every guard's beat constitutes one 

 or more felling series of three or four annual coupes. 



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