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HOW INDIA HAS SAVED HER FORESTS.
A LESSON.
(By E. Kay Robinson.)
In view of the renewed interest
which is being taken in forest conser-
vation in Tasmania, the following ar-
ticle from the August number of the
"Century" will be read with advan-
tage:—
The mistake which is generally made
in estimating the achievements of the
Forest Department of the Government
of India is to suppose that these are
the result of any preconceived plan of
Imperial magnitude, and would there-
fore be difficult and costly to imitate.
As a matter of fact, the Indian Forest
Department is the outcome of a ten-
tative and almost trifling experiment.
It may be doubted, indeed, whether
even the clear evidence of mischief
wrought 'by past neglect of forest pre-
servation would ever have moved the
Government of India to' action on any
large scale. Timidity in incurring ex-
penditure has always 'been the bane of
that 'Government, and its greatest and
most successful undertakings have
generally been forced upon it by ne-
cessity. Thus 'the Indian Forest De-
partmernt owes its existence to the
pinch of difficulty which was expert-
enced, just fifty years ago, in' provid-
ing timber for building warships in
the dockyards of Bombay. In, the pre-
vious year a local bureau had been cre-
ated in Bombay :to control the tim-
ber contractors; bhut the germ of the
existing department was sowed farther
afield, in Madras, where the discern-
ing eyes of General Frederick Cotton
noted, on an official 'tour, the reckless
havoc that was being perpetrated in the
dwindling forests of Madras to meet the
demands of the contractors for the
Bombay dockyard. On his recommen-
dation, the task of evolving a scheme
to protect the Madras forests was en-
trusted to Lieutenant Michael, who had
seen something of forestry in Switzer-
land. The lieutenant still lives, as
Major-General Michael, near London;
and thus we: have within the span of
one mani's active life the whole de-
velopment in India of the successful
effort of civilised man to undo man's
uncivilised mischief. This is summa-
rised in the growth and work of the
Indian Forest Department; and it is
as typical of that department's func-
tion's that so large a tree should have
grown from a chance seed, as it is
characteristic of the ways of the Go
vernment of India that the man to
whom so much is due should still go un-
rewarded.
For seven years .Lieutenant Michael
worked in. the Madras forests, fixing by
his personal experience the healthy and
unhealthy seasons for forest operations,
and, with "no better company than
tame or wild elephants," generally
stereotyping the practical lines upon
which the protection and development
of Indian forests are still carried on.
Then, having risen step by step to
colonel's' rank, having ruined his health
by years of exposure to, jungle-fever,
and having created a solid forest re-
venue for :the Madras Government, and
scmured ant immeasurably greater gain
in the creation of a preserve of forest
resources annually increasing in value
both to the Government and to the
community at large, 'he retired from his
appointement. With Lieutenant Michael
must be bracketed, as authors of Indian
forestry, Dr. H. Cleghorn and Dr. (later
Sir) D. Brandis. If the first was the
pioneer of practical forest work, the
second has been described as the farther
of scientific aboriculture in India, while
t the third possessed that genius for or-
ganisation which converted a small
bureau in the far south of the country
into an imperial department which ex-
ercises complete control over one
eighth of the entire peninsula, produc-
ing a revenue approximating to a mil-
lion sterling per annum. This sun,
moreover, may be regarded merely as
the lowest possible rate of interest de-
rived from a growing capital which
has been entirely created for the bene-
fit of posterity by the labhours of the
Forest Department of India, whose
guiding 'principle remains to-day, as it
has been from the beginning, the subor-
dination of current profits to the im
provement of 'State property for the
benefit of the people. "Reserved"
state 'forests are marked off, large
enough to supply all local and foreign
demands upon each district 'for timber,
fuel, and general forest produce, and
these are worked so as to supply the
largest possible permanent yield in the
most economical way.
The three great difficulties in the way
have been, first, the neglect of forests
in the past, causing the denudation of
land whose reafforestation has become
a Sisyphean task; secondly, the tradi
tions of the villagers, who had assumed
a right of user in the matter of tim-
ber, fuel, and grazing to all forest land;
and, thirdly, the habits of the people,
who conceive that the best way of pay-
ing off a grudge against the Govern-
ment, of securing a tender crop of fod-
der for their cattle next season, or, in
the case of jungle tribes, of preparing
the ground for agriculture, is to set
fire to a forest. Consequently the pre-
servation of reserved forests from in
jury by fire has come to be regarded,
due allowance being made for the na
ture of the inhabitants, as the criterion
by which successful forest work in In
dia is judged, even more than by the
maintenance of seed-bearing trees, the
reproduction of valuable timber, or the
pecuniary profit accruing to the state.
It is, however, the curse of forestry in
India that its large domain of remu
nerative, scientific, and philanthropic
public work should be dragged at the
tail of the procession of political func-
tions appertaintng to the home depart-
ment. Yet, in spite of this, the Indian
forest officers do splendid work over
the vast area committed to their
charge, in every extreme of climate,
from the moist, impenetrable forests
of Assam, covering three-fourths of the
province, to the arid hillsides of Balu-
chistan.
Enumeration of the timber wealth of
of India would give no idea of the variety
of factors with which forest officers
have to deal. In Sind, for instance,
it is no unusual detail of a year's forest
work that an officer in charge of a dis-
trict should report, as in 1894, the ac-
quisition of ton thousand acres of tree-
less waste, and the loss of six thousand
acres of forest, through the vagaries of
the river Indus, which annually shifts
its bed to right or left, often wiping
out villages and threatening cities in
its course. It all comes in the day's
work of the forest officer in the Pun-
jab, also, that he should ride for miles
over the coarse pasturage of treeless
rukh land (coarse pasturage classified
as "forest"), and personally impound
the herds of half-wild buffaloes of
neighbouring villagers trespassing
thereon. If he should have to encoumm
ter villagers sallying out with iron
shod bamboo staves, and offering for
cible resistance--why, that comes into
the day's work, too.
The task of the forest officer natur
ally divides itself under 'these heads
Settlement by the adjustment of legal
rights to the ground; demaircation, by
the delinition of the boundaries to the
land appropriated, as "forest" by the
State; survey, to determine the suit
ability of the land for the produce of
timber, fuel, fodder, pasturage, etc., for
the neighbouring population or for ex
port; preparation of working plans,
whereby the resources of the land in
these several respects may be best de
veloped; provision of communications,
whereby the produce of the forests may
be brought within reach of the people,
and of buildings for the accommodation
of the staff and establishment; of pro-
tection of the forests from fire, tres-
pass, encroachment, and injury, and
improvement by means of felling, re-
production, and other operations of
forestry; working, whereby the largest
annual output of forest produce com-
patible with the preservation of the un-
diminished fertility of the forest area
may be secured; finance, whereby the
working of the department in each of
its subsections, whether divided lati-
tudinally as regards operations, or
longitudinally as regards locality, may
be shown to possess a satisfactory
balance-sheet; maintenance of estab-
lishment, to secure efficiency in every
detail of the work; conduct of experi-
ments in the utilisation of indigenous
resources, and the acclimatisation of
exotic methods or material; regulation
of the export of forest produce to other
provinces of foreign lands; technical
education and recruitment of men and
subordinate officers suitable for forest
work; and, lastly, record of work done.
From this brief and imperfect sum-
mary it will be seen that the work of
the Forest Department demands legal
ability,geometric skill, botltnical know
ledge, administrative talent, 'engineer-
ing faculty, scientfic experience, police
ability, and economic science, besides
all the qualities required for success
in the financial, educational, commer
cial, organising, and record work.
In spite of its limitations and Its
difficulties, the aggregate work of the
Forest Department of India has pro
duced a result which has been rightly
described by Sir Richard Temple as
one of the greatest 'achievements of the
Victorian era; and 'it has been a work,
too, Which, as another authority, Sir
George Birdwood, has shown, was be.
gun only in the nick of time. "A few
more years' delay," he says, "would
have resulted in the total loss of half
the forests of India," of which now the
"reserved" portions alone, where the
state declares' and maintains Its right
to the entire produce, cover more than
seventy thousand square miles, a total
to which large additions 'have yet to be
made in Madras and Burma. These
reserves, moreover, increase annually
In value. Land which was once de
nuded of trees by the unrestricted
grazing of cattle, especially of goats,
which browse by choice upon the top
most shoots of young saplings, is
covered once more with forests which
annually yield a richer output of tim
ber and fuel. Valuable trees have re
placed more worthless kinds. Care
fully guarded, the rubber tree grows
more numerous an'd, more productive;
Imd. in a country like India, where the
mortality from fewer largely exceeds
that from all other causes combined,
the cheap supply of quinine, dispensed
in pice packets throughout the villages
by Government agency, would alone
more than repay the labours of the
Forest Department. Yet Its most srtik
ing and Important achievement has
been the acclimatisation of valuable
foreign trees. Already many Indian
landscapes have been completely al
tered by the Casuarina and Eucalyptus
(beefwood and blue gum) of Australia,
while the introduction of the apple antd
chestnut in the Himalayas has brought
new and important, food supplies
within reach of the people. The Budd
-hists, the Arabs, and the Portuguese
each added somewyhat to the flora of
India, partly from religious motives,
and partly 'for luxury. 'To the British
has been reserved the honour of sur.
passing their combined efforts by the
exercise of a statesmanlike Ihilan
tlhropy which preserves and enriches
the vegetable wealth of the land for the
good of its population.
Deloralne.-For news up-to-date, get the
latest "Examiner" from either Miss Harley
- or Mr. George Harler.
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