118 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
much reluctance on either side, as those will under- 
stand who have experienced how strong becomes 
personal attachment to a locality or population in 
whose welfare interest has been taken. How strong 
this feeling may be can be gauged from the fact 
that ten years later, when opportunity occurred for 
the reconsideration of this question, every detail of 
the transaction was clearly impressed on my memory 
and available for the information of the Government 
of India; and when the villages reverted to the 
charge of the Forest Department, I experienced 
intense satisfaction that was, I am glad to say, 
shared by the villagers themselves. 
A third matter that cost infinite trouble and 
labour was the preparation of the Record of Rights 
for the villages near the forest. All villages within 
three miles of the boundary (and there were many 
in a now more populous country) were enumerated, 
with particulars as to inhabitants and houses, cattle 
and farm buildings, acreage of arable land, demand 
for timber, fuel, grass, produce and grazing; and 
schedules were then prepared recording the annual 
grants of each for which the people were eligible, 
so that the demand on the forest could be esti- 
mated, and information afforded as to the proportion 
of its yield that remained available for sale in the 
open market. This work extended over some years, 
for it necessitated constant reference to the Revenue 
officers, and on completion it received approbationary 
notice by the local Government, though later the 
same Government, under other leadership, revised 
many of the details that had at first been accepted 
as desirable. 
