PREPARATION OF FOREST WORKING-PLANS 



IN INDIA. 



CHAPTER I.— PEELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS. 



WOEKING-PLAN. 



Meaning of the term " forest organisation."— In order that 

 a forest — which is here understood to mean an area set apart 

 for the production of any forest produce — may fulfil its 

 purpose, it is necessary that its limits and its legal status 

 should 136 determined, and the object with which it is to be 

 managed defined : that is to say, it must be demarcated, 

 surveyed, settled, and its working prescribed in a Plan. 



Although the principal product of a forest is generally wood in some form, this 

 is not alwajs so. It may lie sought to obtain other products of trees, for instance 

 gums, resins or fodder leaves ; or to preserve trees for the sake of indirect benefits 

 derived from them, such as the protection of the soil. The only saleable product of 

 many areas under the control of the Forest Department in India is grass ; and it may 

 be necessary, in order to obtain this, to preserve the trees as without them the soil 

 might become dry and barren. 



All these preliminary operations, of which the prepara- 

 tion of the working-plan is only one, are expressed by the 

 term forest organisation. 



The term is, however, frequently used without qualification to express the last of 

 these operations only, namely the preparation of the woiking-plan. Thus organ- 

 ized forest is generally understood to mean a forest for which a working-plan has 

 been prescribed. An organiaed crop is one which fulfils the conditions required by 

 a working-plan. 



Meaning of the term " working-plan." — A working-plan sets 

 forth the purpose with which a forest should be managed, 

 so as to best meet the interests, and therefore the wishes, of 

 the owner ; and indicates the means by which this purpose 

 may be accomplished. In other words, it is a forest regula- 

 tion prescribing the application of certain cultural rules, and 

 the execution of certain works, in order to produce a given 

 desired result. 



