Part II] 
F. A. Wright : Further Note on Thitsi. 
11 
In his settlement report he says : “ I have allowed no Thitsi in 
the Lawksawk Circles as my observations went to show that the trees 
had already been over-tapped, and that further extraction should be 
under proper control.” 
In so far as unclassed forests are concerned, no measures to regulate 
Thitsi tapping have been, or could be, taken by the Forest Department 
in the past, and unless radical changes take place this state of things 
must continue. Under the Rules of the Burma Forest Act, as they 
stand at present, Thitsi being an unreserved tree it may be tapped or 
cut for any purpose whatever without a license. In fact, every Thitsi 
tree in the Southern Shan States unclassed forests—all forests not 
included in Reserves—could be completely exterminated and the Forest 
Department apparently would be powerless to interfere. The result 
is that Thitsi tapping in the past has continued in unclassed forests 
without let or hindrance. 
10. Suggestions for the regulation and control of Thitsi 
tapping in the future. 
In Reserved forests the regulation and control of Thitsi tapping 
will present no difficulties. No tapping.can be done in a Reserve without 
a license or special permit issued by the Divisional Forest Officer, who 
may introduce in the license such conditions with regard to the tapping 
as he may consider necessary or desirable. In view of the fact, however, 
that all Reserves in the Lawksawk and Myelat States are of compara¬ 
tively recent origin and that practically all Thitsi-hesLimg forests con¬ 
tained in them had been heavily, if not excessively, tapped previous 
to reservation, it is important that no Thitsi tapping be permitted in 
them—except, of course, in the case of bond fide right-holders, the exercise 
of whose rights it is not possible to withhold—for a period of at least 
another five years in order that the trees may be given a chance of 
recovering from the heavy tapping to which they, as a rule, had 
been subjected before the Reserves were formed. 
As regards unclassed forests, the matter stands on an entirely 
different footing, and there is no denying the fact that the introduc¬ 
tion of any measures to regulate and control Thitsi tapping is beset 
with many difficulties. 
As I have stated previously, the Forest Department has no power 
under the Rules of the Burma Forest Act, as they exist at present, to 
interfere in any way with tapping in unclassed forests. But, assuming 
—an improbable assumption—that the Rules were modified and the 
Forest Department vested with the necessary powers, it would still 
be a difficult, if not impossible, matter to regulate and control Thitsi 
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