Pembentage

The dizelfcation of the notified forest area into into "Reserved," "Protected" and "Unclassed" needs a few words of explanation. The datingtion between "Reserved" and Protected" forests is that, in the former, there are few or no rights of user and therefore it is possible to prohibit the exercise of all such rights except those specially defined. In Protected" forests, there are established and acknowledged rights of neer, and the exercise of these is permitted, subject to such restrictions as it may be found necessary to impose in the interests of the right-holders and of future generations. The essential distinction between the two classes of forests was happily summarised by the Government of India in the circular referred to above; “speaking broadly, in a reserved forest everything is an offence that is not permitted, while, in a protected forest, nothing is an offence that is not prohibited." Cultivators and breeders of cattle are admitted to reserved forests but, in the interests of timber production, which is their main object, it is necessary to define rigidly what the cultivator and breeder may do and they are, therefore, administered under the stringent provisions of Chapter II of the Indian Forest Act of 1927. Protected forests are unimportant except in the Punjab. In practice, they are, for the most part, forests in which, for one reason or another, it has been considered impolitic to restrict rights too rigidly. They are administered under the provisions of Chapter IV of the Indian Forest Act. The area of unclassed forests is large in Burma, Assam and Bengal. These forests are for the most part situated in inaccessible and undeveloped hill tracts, and the only measure of control which is exercised over them is the prohibition of the felling of certain reserved trees. They possess very great potentialities, but their exploitation has hitherto to a great extent proved an insoluble problem.

FORESTS.

216. In the north and east of India, especially, the agricultural PROTECTION OF THE population is in a very much worse position, in respect of the benefits the forests confer on it, than the percentage figures would indicate. All over India, the forests proper are at a distance from centres of close cultivation. In the Punjab, the United Provinces and Bengal, the forests clothe the

The difference between this figure and that (135,880 square miles) given in the "Agricultural Statistics of India is mainly due to the fact that the statistics given in the latter do not include the 06,374 square miles of unclassed forest in Burma.

foothills and lower slopes of the Himalayas and are almost entirely out of reach of the cultivators in the plains. In the Central Provinces, Bombay and Madras, the agricultural population are somewhat better off, as a larger proportion of the forest area is interspersed among cultivated land. But, even in those provinces, the bulk of the forests is inaccessible to the vast majority of cultivators. We were told that, in Bombay, not more than one-third of the forest area is within reach of the general agricultural population. The relations between forestry and agriculture are necessarily influenced at every point by the general remoteness of the timber forests from the cultivation of the plains. The distances involved and the difficulties of transport between the hills and the plains result in the great mass of the agricultural population deriving little or no direct benefit from the forests proper. On the other hand, there is almost always some cultivation on the outskirts of these forests and areas of cultivation and of grazing, which, in the aggregate, are considerable, occur within the forest boundaries. It is the population in such areas, partly pastoral and nomadic, partly agricultural and settled, but always sparse, that is most directly affected by the manner in which the forests proper are administered. It is in such regions that the officers of the Forest Department are mainly employed. There is, therefore, apt to be lack of contact, not only with the mass of the cultivators, whose concern is with the management of such of the forest lands as lie in the plains within reach of their own cultivation, but also with the agricultural departments. Many of the forests in the plains, as has already been remarked, are forests only in name. Few timber trees are to be found in them, but they provide a certain amount of fuel and grazing.

UTILISATION OF FORESTS FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES.

(i) GENERAL PRIN

CIPLES.

217. In his report on the improvement of Indian agriculture, Dr. Voelcker emphasised the importance of forests in agricultural economy and, therefore, of directing the policy of the Forest Department so that it should serve agricultural interests. The comprehensive Circular on forest policy, which was issued by the Government of India in 1894, the year after his report was presented, and to which reference has already been made, was the outcome of his recommendations on this point. As this Circular still governs the policy of the forest departments, it appears desirable that a brief summary of the main propositions laid down in it should here be given. The full text of the Circular will be found in Appendix V.

The Government of India stated, at the outset, that "the sole object with which State forests are administered is the public benefit." In regulating and restricting the rights and privileges of user in a forest area, the cardinal principle to be observed is that those rights and privileges must be limited, otherwise than for the benefit of right and privilege holders, only where the advantage to be derived by the general public is great and then only in such degree as is absolutely necessary to secure that advantage. It was further laid down that, subject to certain conditions, the claims of cultivation are stronger than the claims of forest preservation. The conditions to which the application of this principle should be

MO Y 286-17a

should pay much more attention in the future to this subject (paragraph 212).

(64) To this end one of the whole-time members of the proposed Imperial Council of Agricultural Research should represent the interests of animal husbandry. This representative should be an authority either on livestock breeding, animal nutrition or veterinary medicine (paragraph 212).

(65) As the representative of animal husbandry on the Council of Agricultural Research cannot be expected to be equally competent in all these three branches, arrangements should be made for ad hoc committees of experts under his chairmanship to deal with special questions (paragraph 212).

SCOPE OF THE CHAP

TER.

CHAPTER VIII

FORESTS

214. We have limited our enquiries regarding the forest lands of British India to an examination of the uses at present made of such of them as are under the management of the Forest Department for agricultural purposes in providing fodder for livestock, fuel and timber for the rural population, and protection for soils liable to erosion. There appear to be directions in which these uses might be considerably extended. Before stating the views we have reached on the subject, it will be convenient to give a brief account of the extent and distribution of these lands and of the declared policy of Government in regard to their use for agricultural purposes.

STATISTICS.

215. As the Table we give below shows, rather more than twenty per cent of the area of British India is classified as land notified under the Indian Forest Act and administered by the Forest Department. This percentage would be slightly increased if forest areas in charge of other departments, and the few privately owned forests, were included.

In a circular issued by the Government of India in 1894,* the forests of India were broadly classed under four heads; forests the preservation of which is essential on climatic or physical grounds; forests which afford a supply of valuable timbers for commercial purposes; minor forests which include tracts which, though true forests, produce only the inferior sorts of timber or the smaller growths of the better sorts; and pastures and grazing ground proper which are usually forests only in name. If the forest area under the management of the Forest Department were all wooded and evenly distributed over the country, it would be sufficient to supply all the needs of the agricultural community, if those needs may be measured by the proportion between forests and cultivation usually held to be desirable in other countries. Unfortunately, much of the area consists of waste ground, often entirely devoid of trees, sometimes indeed of vegetation of any kind. Further, the distribution of the forest area as between province and province is markedly irregular, as the following Table will show :

Forest lands notified under the Indian Forest Act and administered by the Forest Department in 1925-26

Total

20.4

1,099,888 99,898 7,750 117,292 224,940*

The classification of the notified forest area into "Reserved," "Protected" and "Unclassed" needs a few words of explanation. The distinction between "Reserved" and Protected" forests is that, in the former, there are few or no rights of user and therefore it is possible to prohibit the exercise of all such rights except those specially defined. In" Protected" forests, there are established and acknowledged rights of user, and the exercise of these is permitted, subject to such restrictions as it may be found necessary to impose in the interests of the right-holders and of future generations. The essential distinction between the two classes of forests was happily summarised by the Government of India in the circular referred to above; "speaking broadly, in a reserved forest everything is an offence that is not permitted, while, in a protected forest, nothing is an offence that is not prohibited." Cultivators and breeders of cattle are admitted to reserved forests but, in the interests of timber production, which is their main object, it is necessary to define rigidly what the cultivator and breeder may do and they are, therefore, administered under the stringent provisions of Chapter II of the Indian Forest Act of 1927. Protected forests are unimportant except in the Punjab. In practice, they are, for the most part, forests in which, for one reason or another, it has been considered impolitic to restrict rights too rigidly. They are administered under the provisions of Chapter IV of the Indian Forest Act. The area of unclassed forests is large in Burma, Assam and Bengal. These forests are for the most part situated in inaccessible and undeveloped hill tracts, and the only measure of control which is exercised over them is the prohibition of the felling of certain reserved trees. They possess very great potentialities, but their exploitation has hitherto to a great extent proved an insoluble problem.

FORESTS.

216. In the north and east of India, especially, the agricultural PROTECTION OF THE population is in a very much worse position, in respect of the benefits the forests confer on it, than the percentage figures would indicate. All over India, the forests proper are at a distance from centres of close cultivation. In the Punjab, the United Provinces and Bengal, the forests clothe the

The difference between this figure and that (135,880 square miles) given in the 'Agricultural Statistics of India "is mainly due to the fact that the statistics given in the latter do not include the 95,374 square miles of unclassed forest in Burma.