VIZAGAPATAM.
been framed under section 26 which, among other things, prohibit the felling or damaging of trees or the gathering of their produce without the Collector's permission; permit the special protection of special tracts from fire or grazing; empower the Collector to prohibit the felling of specified trees; and allow hill-villagers to fell free of charge any wood which they require for home consumption and to carry on pódu under certain restrictions.
In Golgonda taluk the forests are also of two classes, those in the plains reserved under section 16 and those on the hills protected by rules framed under section 26 and similar to those in force in the Pálkonda Agency. The growth in the former resembles that in Sarvasiddhi taluk already referred to, the situation, soil, and circumstances of the two areas being very similar. Parts of two reserves near Narasapatam are being treated under a systematic working-plan to provide fuel for that town, while four small reserves which lie at the southern end of the taluk are being exploited for railway and other fuel as a complementary 'series' to the West Peddapalli working circle.
The forests on the Golgonda hills are some of the densest and most continuous in the whole district. On the edge of the plateau next the plains the villages are larger than elsewhere and pódu is frequent, but this seldom extends down the outer slopes and the further one travels inland the rarer does it become, until in the western part of the hills only isolated areas occur in the otherwise unbroken sea of jungle. The heaviest growth is in the valleys,and the tops of the numerous hills with which the plateau is dotted are usually bare except for a covering of long grass. The hill people require but little timber for their own domestic use, and as the plateau is inaccessible to carts no illicit removals to the plains are possible. The forests are in consequence as well protected as any in the Presidency, although they are not reserved under section 16 of the Act and no forest staff is stationed in them. The only real injury from which they suffer is that caused by fires.
Captain Beddome's report on this tract (and his description still applies) says -
'For the eastern coast the hills are very rich in forest vegetation,and I was surprised to find very considerable tracts of shola or moist forest land about most of the ravines and in the vicinity of the hill-streams. These tracts are not so rich in the number of species of trees, or in the endless variety of undergrowth, as similar tracts on our western coast, but the forest is evergreen and decidedly what would bo termed shola, and is very rich in ferns; some fifty species having been observed, amongst which were three or four unknown to
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