( 65A ) 



other words, that no such work should be inaugurated in any land 

 which does not belong to Government or in which Government 

 has not obtained control by agreement with the landholders. .For 

 this reason they strongly recommend that, in anticipation of sub- 

 sequent famines, Government should, as soon as possible, select 

 certain areas in which to carry out works of relief, and that it 

 should either acquire such areas, or lease them, or arrive at some 

 agreement with the landholders concerned. 



27. Establishment necessary for reclamation. Whether Gov- 

 ernment undertakes the departmental management of ravine tracts 

 for the purposes of reclamation, as suggested by His Honour the 

 Lieutenant-Governor in his speech at Jhaiisi, or whether the 

 zamindars can be induced to undertake the work at their own 

 expense, it is obvious that there must be a supply of trained sub- 

 ordinates to supervise the work on behalf of either Government or 

 the landholders. It is equally obvious that it would be impossible 

 suddenly to train a large number of such men on the declaration of 

 famine. The writers think therefore that a few remarks under this 

 head will not be out of place in this report- 



28 In the first place Mr. Courthope is strongly of opinion that 

 all subordinates should be specially recruited and trained for this 

 work of reclamation and afforestation and that, when this has been 

 done, no more subordinates should be recruited from the Forest 

 department. The excellent forest training given to provincial officers 

 and subordinates at Dehra Dun College and the Bamnagar training 

 class is to a large extent wasted on men whose work is to afforest 

 waste land, and, although the services of officers recruited for the 

 Forest department are entirely at the disposal of Government for 

 any branch of forest work, ii cannot be denied that provincial officers 

 and subordinates would never be really contented to spend the 

 rest of their service in afforesting bare ravines, while if officers 

 after being trained in afforestation work are to be transferred back 

 to ordinary forest divisions, the work of reclamation must suffer. 

 There are three classes of men who will be required. In the first 

 place in each block of about 2,000 acres in which work is being 

 ' carried out there must be a. man corresponding to a " forester," 

 who will be directly responsible for carrying out the necessary 

 operations correctly. From three to five of such small charges 

 would be grouped under men of higher educational qualifications 

 who would supervise all works, and two or three of these larger 

 charges would be grouped under the control of an officer, corre- 

 sponding in rank to an Extra-Assistant Conservator of Forests, who 

 would work as a sub-divisional officer to the Afforestation officer 

 and who would be provided with a small office establishment. 



13 



