Gódávari/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V.
FORESTS.
Early Operations—Progress of reservation. Settlement—Proprietary rights—Susceptibilities of the jungle tribes—Podu cultivation. Administration—In Rampa—In the rest of the Agency—River transit rules—Fire-protection—Artificial reproduction; casuarina—Mangrove—Introduction of exotics, etc. General Character of the Forests—On the coast—In the uplands —In Pólavaram and Yellavaram—In Rampa—In Bhadráchalam—Timber and the market for it—Minor forest produce—Forest revenue.
The best forests in the district are those in the Agency, and trade in their timber, facilitated as it is by the waterway provided by the Gódávari river, has flourished from the earliest times. The Committee of Circuit (see p. 162) refer to it as far back as 1786 and it was still in existence when the Government recently began forest conservancy. The Bhadráchalam and Rékapalle country was the chief centre. Dealers from the plains employed the Kóyas and hill Reddis to cut timber at so much a log, or bamboos at so much a thousand, and to drag them to the riverside, where they were made into rafts and floated down stream1[1] to the markets nearer the coast.
Forest conservancy was first begun in the Bhadráchalam taluk, which was transferred to the district from the Central Provinces in 1874. Soon after the transfer, the Madras Government threw open its forests to exploitation on the permit system, and annually netted a very fair revenue from them.2[2] In 1876-77 reserves amounting to 138 square miles (subsequently reduced to 68 square miles) were selected in the taluk by Mr. Boileau, the Deputy Conservator of Forests who had been sent to the district for the purpose; but the hill tribes were permitted to cut whatever wood they chose for their own use, and complaints were frequently made that they sold timber and other produce to outside dealers. Although only four guards were sanctioned for the protection of these reserves, yet the average annual revenue between 1874 and 1882 was Rs. 21,000, while the expenditure averaged only Rs. 3,800. In the latter of these two years Mr. Boileau reported very unfavourably on the condition of the forests; and Dr. (afterwards Sir Dietrich) Brandis, who was then in Madras advising the Government regarding its future forest policy, recommended that conservancy in this taluk should be abandoned unless Government was prepared to introduce the Forest Act and to sanction the reservation of large compact blocks, capable of subsequent extension, and stated that it was the unanimous opinion of the local officers that grazing, fires, indiscriminate cutting and the clearings made by the hill men for their shifting cultivation were ruining the forests.
The Government accordingly directed Mr. J. S. Gamble, the Conservator of the Northern Division, to inspect the taluk and report on Sir Dietrich Brandis' proposals, and his detailed account of the forests1[3] finally dispelled any doubt as to their importance. Mr. Gamble rearranged Mr. Boileau's reserves and proposed new ones which brought up the forest area to 530 square miles. Most of this tract was notified under the Forest Act between 1889 and 1891; but the large Rékapalle hills reserve of 93,500 acres was not notified till 1896.
Reservation was soon begun in other taluks also. By 1893 large areas had been notified in the Peddápuram taluk and Yellavaram division, but the major portion of the large Pólavaram forests were not reserved till 1899, and it was not until 1901 that the forests of the district as a whole attained their present proportions.
The marginal figures show in square miles the area of the reserves and reserved land in each taluk or division and in the district as a whole. They do not include Rampa, which though containing large areas of jungle, has for political reasons been excluded from the operations, and yet it will be noticed that 737 square miles of the total of 942 square miles is situated in the agency divisions.
| Amalápuram | 13 |
| Bhadráchalam | 460 |
| Cocanada | 86 |
| Peddápuram | 72 |
| Pólavaram | 111 |
| Rajahmundry | 34 |
| Yellavaram | 166 |
| Total Gódávari district | 942 |
The rights of Government over the forests in the Agency have been established in different ways in different tracts. In Rampa, the muttadars at one time claimed the right to lease out the forests, and large quantities of timber were removed by the lessees they appointed. But it was eventually ruled that Government stood in the exact place of the former mansabdar of Rampa and that consequently neither the muttadars nor the mokhásadars had any right to lease out the jungle or fell timber for sale, and that the Rampa forests were the property of the State.1[4] As however these subordinate proprietors had hitherto been enjoying a considerable forest revenue of which it seemed harsh to deprive them absolutely, it was resolved in December 1892 to pay them an annual allowance amounting to half the net average of this revenue during the previous three years, on the understanding that they would assist Government in the future administration of the forest. In the Yellavaram and Pólavaram divisions, no such difficulty occurred in settling the rights of proprietors.
In the Bhadráchalam taluk the Government of the Central Provinces had adopted, in their permanent settlement with the zamindars, a policy regarding forests which differs from that traditional in this Presidency. The forests and waste lands in zamindari estates were not handed over to the zamindars, but, after a liberal deduction from them (called the dupati land) had been made round each village to allow for the possible extension of cultivation, were declared to be State property.2[5]
Reservation was complicated not only by claims to the proprietary ownership of the forests, but also by the unusual habits and susceptibilities of the hill tribes who dwelt among them. These people, though possessing few sustainable rights over the jungle, had from time immemorial enjoyed and abused a general freedom to fell or burn whatever growth they chose. The Kóyas and hill Reddis lived in villages situated on the borders of, and even within, the proposed reserves, and for political reasons great care was considered necessary in dealing with them. Dissatisfaction with the new forest rules in Rékapalle was apparently the reason which had led the Kóyas of that taluk to join in the Rampa rebellion of 1879.
Both the Kóyas and the Reddis lived by the shifting (pódu) cultivation described in the last chapter (p. 78), making clearings in the heart of the forest by felling and burning the trees, cultivating them for a year or two until their first fertility was exhausted, and then moving on to new ground. Not only were acres of valuable forest thus felled, but the fires lit for burning these patches spread over enormous areas. On the other hand, reservation, to be thorough, necessitated the exclusion of this class of cultivation from the reserved blocks and meant a considerable curtailment of the old privileges of the hill men, who had been accustomed to wander and burn wherever they liked. In the earlier stages of the forest settlement in Pólavaram and Yellavaram the officers in charge of the Agency held that reservation had been too wholesale and that the allowance of jungle left in the neighbourhood of villages to provide for the extension or rotation of cultivation and for the supply of timber for implements and other domestic purposes was inadequate. Mr. (now Sir A. T.) Arundel, then a Member of the Board of Revenue, consequently visited the district in October 1893 and enquired into the matter on the spot. He came to the conclusion that the habits of the hill men had not received adequate consideration, and it was accordingly ordered that the Assistant Agent and the District Forest Officer should personally investigate the complaints and see that equitable claims were satisfied. Without laying down hard-and-fast rules it was indicated that pódus which had long been abandoned and were covered with jungle need not necessarily be excluded from reservation, but that well recognized pódus should be excluded and handed over to the cultivators; and that for the rotation and extension of cultivation a sufficient extent (eight times the existing area annually under cultivation as a maximum) should be set aside.
In Bhadráchalam the settlement was completed without controversy. The hill men of that taluk had long been accustomed to the idea of reservation, and considerable leniency was shown in the provision of areas for cultivation. It is however only in the last few years that pódu cultivation in the reserves there has been completely stopped.
In Rampa, the scene of a violent rebellion as recently as 1879, it was considered better not to run any risk of arousing discontent by attempts at reservation, and the forests there were never demarcated at all. They are still administered on a system different from that followed in the rest of the district.
The susceptibilities of the hill men led to cautious systems of forest administration throughout the Agency, all orders being issued through the Agent or his Special Assistant, but in Rampa the methods adopted were quite distinct. The country was exempted from the operation of all but section 26 of Chapter III, and Chapters V, VII, IX and X of the Forest Act. These rendered it possible to regulate the cutting and transit of timber, and special rules were drawn up regarding those matters. The people were allowed to cut timber for their own use except tamarind, jack, ippa, soap-nut, gall-nut and mango trees; but any one desirous of exporting any wood had to take out a permit before doing so, to pay certain fees, and to cart it by one or other of certain prescribed routes, along which inspection tánahs under the management of the Forest department were placed to check the exports with the permits. These regulations still remain in force.
Minor forest produce for their own use may be collected by the Rampa people free of all charge; but on any which is exported, seigniorage is levied generally at the weekly markets outside Rampa where the produce is brought for sale, and from the traders and not from the hill men. The same procedure is adopted in the case of minor produce brought out of the Yellavaram division.
The Rampa people are also allowed to graze their own cattle in the forest free. But owners of foreign cattle driven to Rampa to graze have to take out permits and pay fees,1[6] and the cattle have to be produced for check at the tánah specified in the permit. In 1900-01 the forest revenue from all these sources amounted to Rs. 5,500; in 1901-02 to Rs. 9,400; in 1902-03 to Rs. 10,800; and in 1903-04 to Rs. 6,700.
In the Agency outside the Rampa country the forests are either wholly or partially reserved. In the latter, timber, as in Rampa, may be felled for agricultural and domestic purposes free, except that certain trees must not be touched. In Pólavaram nineteen species have been thus excepted, in Yellavaram fifteen, and in Bhadráchalam nine; while in this last taluk Kóyas and hill Reddis are allowed to fell any trees except teak and Diospyros melanoxylon. In unsurveyed villages any trees may be felled to prepare land for permanent cultivation and any except certain species (specified in each division) to clear it for pódu. In surveyed villages the rules usual elsewhere are in force.
Minor produce (except rela and tangédu bark, for which permits are required) may be gathered free for domestic use in this class of forests in Yellavaram, and in Bhadráchalam by Kóyas and hill Reddis. Seigniorage is collected, as in Rampa, at the weekly markets from the traders on any which is collected for export. In Pólavaram the revenue is collected on the permit system in both classes of forest.
The grazing rules differ in the different divisions of the Agency; but in all of them Kóyas and Reddis are allowed to graze their cattle free, and in all of them except Bhadráchalam (whither cattle are seldom driven on account of its remoteness foreign cattle are charged full rates. People other than Kóyas and Reddis are charged one-quarter the full rates in Bhadráchalam, one-half in Pólavaram and one anna a head in Yellavaram.
The game rules are in force in the Pápikonda hill (Bison hill) reserve of the Pólavaram division, in order to protect the bison there, which are rapidly disappearing. It is in contemplation to extend the rules in course of time to the adjoining Kopalli and Kovvada blocks.
The Gódávari (and, in a lesser degree, the Saveri) are important waterways for floating timber from forests belonging to other administrations. Native States, zamindars, and private individuals outside the district. But they also flow for many miles through the forests of this Collectorate, and this renders much care necessary to prevent them from being used for the illicit removal of timber from the forests of this district under the pretence that it comes from elsewhere. Inspection tánahs have accordingly been established at which all timber floated down these rivers is checked. Timber brought from forests other than those in this district belonging to Government has to be covered by vouchers signed by the owners of the forests or responsible authorities, and the wood is checked with these.
Fire-protection, always a difficult problem, is rendered doubly troublesome in the Agency owing to the prevalence of the habit of smoking and the existence of pódu cultivation close alongside the reserves. Formerly patrols used to be employed during the fire-season, but during the past two years the money allotted for fire-protection has been spent in inducing the hill folk themselves to co-operate in checking fires, annual rewards being granted to the people of villages the reserves next which escaped damage from this cause. Villages are allotted certain limits within which they are expected to check fires by cutting lines, appointing patrols, and observing and enforcing prohibitions against burning pódus within 100 yards of any forest boundary line, burning the grass under ippa trees to facilitate the collection of the flowers when they fall, and throwing down live cheroot ends. If within the limits thus fixed a fire occurs, the villagers concerned lose their reward. The plan has met with a fair measure of success.
The only artificial reproduction of forests which has been attempted is in the casuarina plantations near the coast. Two large blocks of this tree exist, in which over 85 acres are annually planted up. In the Kandikuppa block, in which the rotation has been fixed at fifteen years, the planting is at intervals of six feet by six, the object being to produce long, straight poles for the river protection works of the Public Works department. In the Bendamúrlanka block, where the rotation is ten years, the seedlings are put out at an interval of nine feet by nine. In both areas thinnings are made after the fifth year to admit light to induce increase in girth; and in both of them the method of reproduction employed is clear felling and replanting.
The artificial regeneration of the mangrove has been undertaken during the past three years in the Coringa reserve, a valuable swamp forest about twelve miles from the important fire wood market at Cocanada. Natural reproduction is hindered by the unsuitability of the ground under the trees, which, being raised year after year by silt, becomes hard and dry during the season (the north-east monsoon)when the seed falls, and allows the seed to be carried away by the tide before it can take root. The higher and drier portions give very little hope of ever being restocked with anything except inferior species of tilla (Excœcaria Agallocha) which coppices freely. The mangrove itself gives poor result from coppicing, and consequently, in the lower and softer portions of the swamp, sowing and dibbling have been largely resorted to. The seed is sown broad cast wherever the sea recedes enough to leave the ground bare and the latter is soft enough for the seed to sink in; while where the surface is hard or permanently covered by water, the slower and more costly method of dibbling in the seed is followed. About 600 acres have been sown in three years at an average cost of twelve and a half annas per acre.
Experiments made with exotics and foreign varieties have not given satisfactory results. Log-wood plants raised from seed imported from Jamaica have been put down in the Coringa swamp forests in different localities, but without Success. Attempts have also been made to re-stock elevated parts of the same marsh with dry-land species, but owing to want of rain the result was very disheartening. In the Pegha reserve in Bhadraáhalam taluk some 25 acres; were sown with teak seed from Coimbatore in August 1903, but a year later only 500 seedlings were to be found.
The character of the forests of the district naturally differs widely in different localities. Along the tidal creeks of the Gódávari river near the coast runs a mangrove jungle which extends southwards from Coringa for a distance of about 35 miles with an average width of five miles. About one-third of this area belongs to zamindars and the rest to Government. The zamindari portion is mere scrub jungle, having been repeatedly cut over, and much of it is a waste plain containing no growth whatever. The Government portion is the main source of the fuel-supply of Cocanada. The species found in this forest consist chiefly of four varieties of Avicennias, and of Rhizophorœ, Ægiceras, Lumnitzeras, Ceriops, and other inferior trees. Ceriops Candolleana yields a bark ('gedara bark') which the villagers use for colouring fishing-nets. The barks of the other mangrove species, although said to be good tanning materials, are not used as such, probably because they contain a large percentage of colouring matter. The forest is useful only for the fuel it yields.
Mangrove wood is inferior as fuel to the ordinary upland jungle species, but Lumnitzera racemosa (though scarce) is extremely hard and burns excellently, and the Ceriops shrub burns even when green if the bark is removed. Sonneratia apetala (kalingi) is a soft wood which is useful in brick-kilns when newly cut, but rapidly rots. The worst fuel of all is the tilla, a pithy wood full of an acrid juice which smokes more than it burns.
Besides these natural jungles, the coast forests comprise the two large plantations of casuarina already mentioned, which yield firewood and poles or piles for the river-protection works of the Public Works department. The Kandikuppa plantation (532 acres in extent and only partially planted at present) lies on the coast about 30 miles from Cocanada and has direct water communication with that town. The Bendamúlanka block (470 acres in extent) is 30 miles further down the coast, and is nearly planted up, but has only indirect and tortuous water communication with Cocanada.
Proceeding northward from the coast, scattered blocks of forest are met with in the Rajahmundry and Peddápuram ranges. These chiefly contain wood fit only for fuel, though stunted specimens of timber-yielding trees are scattered here and there and provide small timber for building huts and so forth. Among these latter are Terminalia tomentosa, Diospyros melanoxylon, Pterocarpus Marsupium, Anogeissus latifolia, Lagerstrœmia parviflora, Adina cordifolia, Chloroxylon Swietenia, Lebedieropsis orbicularis, Soymida febrifuga, and a sprinkling of young Xylia dolabriformis and some patches of bamboo.
The forests of Pólavaram and Yellavaram are of a better character. In Yellavaram there are 47 square miles of good forest in which fairly large timber (three to five feet in girth) is found, and some 96 square miles containing trees (one and half to three feet in girth) providing timber of a smaller kind. The principal timber species are the Xylia, Terminalia, Pterocarpus, Anogeissus, Chloroxylon, Lagerstrœmia and Adina already mentioned as occurring further south. In the Pólavaram division, besides the above, teak (which never occurs in Yellavaram) is also met with. It may be said generally, however, that although these forests contain large timber trees, these are usually either unsound or situated in inaccessible places. The bulk of the crop consists of small growth which, owing to its distance from a market, is valueless either as fuel or timber.
The chief fruit-trees are the tamarind, gall-nut and ippa, and these forests also contain a quantity of the thin kind of bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) which is largely used for sugar-cane props.
The Rampa forests, being unreserved, have been less studied than the others. They are in a worse condition than those of Yellavaram and Pólavaram, since unrestricted fellings are permitted for pódu cultivation, and their remoteness renders the extraction of any timber both difficult and costly. Small quantities are removed on permits by consumers on their borders, and the bamboos in them, which include quantities of both Bamhusa and Dendrocalamus, are also utilized similarly.
The forests in Bhadráchalam may be divided into (l) the Rékapalle or Xylia range, (2) the Marrigúdem or teak range, and (3) the Bhadráchalam range, of which three-quarters consists mainly of teak and one-quarter of Hardwickia binata. Besides these predominant and more valuable species, large quantities of other timber trees are found, among which are the Terminaia, Pterocarpus, Adina, Anogeissus and Lagerstrœmia already mentioned above, and likewise Dalbergia latifolia and Terminallia Arjuna. In the Bhadráchalam and Marrigúdem ranges, the teak, Xylia and Hardwickia are either comparatively young or unsound, the best trees having been felled in past years. The same is true of the less valuable species.
The best forest left is that in the inaccessible Rékapalle hills. For this a working plan1[7] has been recently framed. The examination of the growth made in connection with this showed that over a fifth (sometimes nearly one-half) of the crop consisted of Xylia, that Hardwickia was very rare, that, among the inferior timber trees Lebedieropsis orbicularis was prominent, and that the rest of the forest was mainly made up of the trees already mentioned as prevalent in this part of the district, together with Albizzia odoratissima and A. procera. The finest stock is found on the plateaus and in elevated situations generally, and the size of the trees increases as one goes northwards; but the growth along the western edge and near enclosures has greatly deteriorated from having been subjected to excessive pódu cultivation. Great difficulty is experienced in putting the working plan into practice, owing to the difficulty in extracting the produce from the more remote parts of these hills.
At present the Bhadráchalam forests give no large timber. Teak is rarely obtained in logs more than 30 inches in girth and 25 feet long, and even then is crooked, unsound, knotty and fibrous, and, except for boat-building, is unable to compete in the markets with Burma teak. That from Marrigúdem, however, is prettily grained and suitable for furniture. Terminalia tomentosa (nalla maddi) is procurable in about the same sizes and is useful for building; Dalbergia latifolia (iruguduchava) is usually in shorter logs and is poor, unsound in the centre, and chiefly employed for furniture; and Pterocarpus Marsupium (yégisi) is procurable from 10 to 15 feet in length and from 4 to 5 feet in girth and is much used for planking, ceiling-boards and the like.
The chief markets for timber are Rajahmundry and Cocanada. Of these, the first is much the more important, and the timber is taken thence to Cocanada, Bezwada, Masulipatam and Ellore, as well as to smaller dépôts at Narasapur, Amalápuram and Rámachandrapuram.
The bulk of the marketable minor forest produce comes from the Rampa and Yellavaram forests, Bhadráchalam and Pólavaram producing very little. Tamarind, gall-nuts, nux vomica, honey, wax, soap-nut, sikáy, platter leaves and skins and horns are the chief items, and the bulk of the revenue under this head is derived from tamarind and gall-nuts. The chief markets are again at Rajahmundry and Cocanada, whence the produce is distributed to many parts of India, Ceylon and Europe. Large quantities of nux vomica and gall-nuts are sent to London and Hamburg; wax goes to London, Colombo, Calcutta and Bombay; horns to London and France; skins to Madras; and sikáy to Madras, Cuddalore and Tuticorin. Most of the other produce is consumed locally.
The total revenue from the forests of the district amounted in 1904-05 to nearly two lakhs, of which Rs. 56,000 were derived from the sale of bamboos, Rs. 43,000 from minor forest produce, Rs, 35,000 from timber, Rs. 27,000 from firewood and charcoal, and Rs. 16,000 from grazing-fees and the sale of grass for fodder.
- ↑ 1 B.P. No. 1992 (Forest No. 372), dated 7th July 1885, p. II.
- ↑ 2 B.P. Forest No. 222, dated 30th July 1902.
- ↑ 1 Printed in B.P. No. 1992 (Forest No, 372), dated 7th July 1885.
- ↑ 1 See B.P., Forest No. 128, dated 6th March 1890 and G.O. No. 1280, Revenue, dated 21st December 1892.
- ↑ 2 See Chapter XI, p. 176.
- ↑ 1 This system was not instituted till 1899, when it was found that the hill muttadars were levying fees of this kind without authority. See the correspondence in B.Ps., Forest Nos. 318, dated 28th July 1897 and 264, dated 22nd June 1899. For the subsequent raising of the fees see B.Ps., Forest Nos. 89, dated 1st March 1901 and 19, dated 28th January 1904.
- ↑ 1 See B.P., Forest No. 222, dated 30th July 1902.