^ THE WORK OF THE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 



cof immense importance, but the first duty of the Department is 

 ..to provide for the wants of the agricultural population and to 

 :maintain the areas committed to its charge in such a condition 

 .that their indirect effects shall be as beneficial as possible. 

 Forestry has been termed the handmaid of agriculture, and 

 nowhere does this apply with greater force than in India, which 

 is essentially an agricultural country. Apart from their 

 ordinary domestic and agricultural requirements for timber, 

 fuel, thatching and fodder grass, grazing and numerous minor 

 products, in many parts of the country the people are largely 

 -dependent on the forest for their very existence in times of 

 famine. It is worthy of note also that among the recommenda- 

 tions made by Dr. Voelcker in his report on the possibilities of 

 improvement in Indian agriculture the one which he regarded 

 as of the greatest importance was that of providing fuel and 

 fodder reserves by means of afforestation. To this work he 

 alludes as " the one practical measure which calls for the most 

 urgent attention and from which the greatest benefits may be 

 expected to follow." 



Legal control over forests is effected under the provisions of 

 special forest enactments. The Indian Forest Act, "VII of 

 .1878, as subsequently amended, applies to the whole of British 

 India except Burma, Madras, Assam, British Baluchistan, 

 Ajmer and the North-West Frontier Province. Under this Act 

 State forest or waste land may be constituted reserved or pro- 

 tected forest. Before any area is declared reserved forest it is 

 subjected to a regular settlement by a forest settlement officer 

 who enquires into the existence and nature of all private or 

 public rights and either provides for their extinction by pur- 

 chase, commutation or exchange, or settles the conditions under 

 which and the extent to which they may be exercised. The 

 procedure regarding protected forests is somewhat similar; 

 Tights are enquired into and recorded but not definitely settled 

 and there is no bar to the accrual of new rights as in the case of 

 reserved forests. The Act further provides for village forests 

 to be settled and managed for the benefit of village communities, 

 also for the protection of forests and trees, the control of forest 

 produce in transit, the control of forests not the property of 

 Government and other matters. Other special forest enact- 



