THE NERBUDDA 287 



and destroyed and burnt, and much damage done. The 

 Forest Department has done much to put a stop to this 

 pernicious custom by taking up large reserves, where it is 

 forbidden and the fires excluded. 



Two more marches, through valleys and across low 

 ridges, all dense forest, bring us to the teak plantation of 

 Banka Burda. Here is a forest chappar or bungalow, 

 built of wattle and daub, with a roof thickly thatched 

 with the forest grass. It stands in a narrow valley high 

 up among rocky hills, where a stream of clear water flows 

 from perennial springs. There is a mud floor, and a 

 verandah all round, and doors and windows are only aper- 

 tures in the wattled walls. The Forest Assistant coming 

 to inspect the planting operations puts up in this pictur- 

 esque mansion, but a prolonged stay generally means a 

 strong go of jungle fever. The work of sowing teak seed, 

 and planting out the seedlings in nursery beds and eventu- 

 ally in the forest, is carried on by a jamadar with a staff 

 of coolies. It is a pretty expensive operation, and a good 

 many young trees die in the hot weather ; but when once 

 estabhshed they go ahead strong. The jungle is infested 

 by tigers, which occasionally carry off the coolies, and 

 it is the duty of the forest officer to shoot them, a duty 

 he is not slow to perform. 



The Gond shikaris brought in news in the evening 

 that a tiger had just killed a cow, and was lying in a 

 thicket in a ravine close by. At early dawn the camp 

 was astir, and some coolies with torches and tom-toms 

 were sent round to beat the ravine. A fine tiger was 

 rolled over by the Assistant Conservator, and brought 

 into camp by breakfast-time. Then there was a drive 

 for bison. Some Gonds who knew the haunts of these 

 great beasts, and where they mostly lay up in the heat 

 of the day, and their well-worn paths across the ridges 



