APPENDIX III, 



GOVERNMENT, UNITED PROVINCES. 



No. 348. 



[RESOLUTIONS.] 

 FOREST DEPARTMENT. 

 Dated Naini Tal, the %Qth August, 1912. 



OBSERVATIONS. The attention of the Lieutenant-G-overnor has 

 for some time been directed to the importance for the future 

 development of the province of a denned policy in the matter of 

 the preservation of the wooded areas now in existence, the reboise- 

 men of areas which have been denuded of their trees, and the 

 establishment throughout the province of well-distributed fuel and 

 fodder reserves. 



2. The important bearing of afforestation on the economic 

 problems of the country is not a recent discovery. The first 

 impulse came from Sir Dietrich Brandis, who, in 1873, was already 

 advocating the establishment of the " agricultural forest " and had 

 initiated steps towards the realization of this policy in Ajmer- 

 Merwara. And at the close of his official career it was on his 

 advice that the Madras Government associated the Forest depart- 

 ment so closely with the development of agriculture. The impor- 

 tance of the question was recognized in the report of the Famine 

 Commissioners of 1880 and in the resolution of the Government 

 of India of March 1883 dealing with that report, which called 

 attention to the rapid diminution of grazing-lands and wooded 

 tracts in the United Provinces and to the damage resulting from 

 indiscriminate grazing. It was pointed out that thousands of 

 cattle had been saved by the protected grazing of Banda, and that 

 thousands had perished in Jhansi for lack of suoh protection. 

 Enquiries were suggested as to the practicability of the formation 

 of fodder and fuel reserves. It was ascertained that usar land 

 was available in abundance and ravine land in considerable quanti- 

 ties. An outcome of these investigations was the ravine experi- 

 ments in Etawah and Jhansi and the establishment of canal 

 plantations at Cawnpore, Agra, Roorkee, and other places in the 

 province. In Madras the fact that the State is the owner of waste 

 land and that, owing to the physical character of the country, 

 cultivated land and forest are brought into more constant and 

 intimate contact, rendered the policy of summoning forestry to 

 the aid of agriculture easier of realization. 



