vy 



ARTICLE 5. Injuries to -which the crop is liable. 



12. Fires, climbers, frost, grass and storms are the principal injuries to 

 which the crop is liab'e. Fires have been on the whole successfully dealt with 

 by the fire protection system in vogue. Climbers are numerous, but can be 

 cut out. Frost is a danger that is to be feared ; the chief precaution against this, 

 and also the danger from grass, lies in the exercise of care not to interrupt the 

 leaf canopy too much in making fellings. Storms are frequent in spring and 

 often blow down teak tret?, which seem more easily overthrown than othtr species. 



CHAPTER III. SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. 

 ARTICLE I. Past and present management. 



13. The past history down to the year 1897 is given in paragraphs 20, 21, 

 22 and 23 of the old working plan, which are quoted below. It should be borne 

 in mind, however, that this working plan only deals with old Bori. 



Old Bori, or the portion east of the Sonabhadra, together with Dhain on the 

 left bank, belonged originally to Thakur Bhabutsingh, from whom it was con- 

 fiscated in 1859 or thereabouts, on account of his rebellion, and it was taken up 

 by the Forest Department (only just then) organised in 1862. At that time 

 there was a considerable local population of aboriginal tribes who practised 

 " dahya " or " shifting cultivation, " on such a large scale that three-fourths of the 

 total area are said to have been under such cultivation. In " the dahyas " some 

 of the larger trees were left standing after being completely lopped or pollarded ; 

 all the rest of the forest was ruthlessly cut down and fired. When the forest 

 was taken over numbers of half burnt teak logs were lying on the ground. The 

 best of these were collected in depots and aggregated 1 10,000 cubic feet. Dahya 

 cultivation was fortunately stopped in 1864, ar >d with the exception of the villagtrs 

 of Jholi and Harapala, which were kept up to supply labour for forest work, the 

 population was induced to settle elsewhere ; the forests were at the same time 

 closed to grazing, except for the few head of cattle remaining in Jholi and Hara- 

 pala, until these villages were deserted in 1871. The condition of the forests 

 then was, it is hardly necessary to say, lamentable in the extreme ; large areas 

 were to be found almost bare, and the amount of young growth elsewhere 

 was notably insufficient, while the larger trees were nearly all unsound. Destruc- 

 tive as dahya cultivation was, the miserable condition of the stock was partly 

 due also to unrestricted fellings, for the supply of teak timber for the Nerbudda 

 valley, from Bhankheri to Hoshangabad, came almost entirely from these and the 

 adjacent forests, (New Bori) a certain quantity going as far as Bhopal, Indore, 

 Mho\v and Saugor. 



In 1864 special measures for protecting the forests from fire were started. 

 This is the first time such measures were adopted in any part of world. In the 

 following year the forest was notified as a Reserve under the Forest Act, 1865. 



In 1869 the forests were visited by the Inspector-General of Forests, and, 

 as a result, Mr. Davidson, a Scotch Forester, was placed in resident charge 

 (Head-quarters at Harapala) with orders to demarcate the boundary, divide the 

 forest into blocks, make improvement fellings and plant and sow up blanks and 

 abandoned dahyas. Mr. Davidson divided the portion north of the road from 

 Jholi to Pachmarhi into seven, and the portion to the south into eight, compart- 

 ments. No improvement fellings seem to have been attempted, but a small 

 plantation of teak was made at Harapala. 



In 1878 the portion to the west of the Sonbhadra up to the Kankri village 

 boundary (New Bori) was added so as to include all the teak-producing tract 

 there. The taking up of this area was recommended so far back as 1866 by 

 Lieutenant (now Colonel) Doveton, then in charge of the Western Division. 



In 1877 the Western Division (just mentioned) was broken up and Bori 

 became a portion of the Hoshangabad Division, to which it has ever since 

 belonged. 



For all practical purposes there was no felling in these forests from the 

 time they were taken over by the Department until 1889. From 1889 to 1894-95 



