FORESTS.
our western forests, though all of them Himalayan or Burmene ferus, and two very fine tree-ferns. The rattan abounds, moss was very abundant and at a much lower elevation than it is found in our western forests, and lycopods were common. The drier forests yield three sorts of bamboo and are very rich in valuable timber .... About fourteen miles to the south-west of Gúdem, and two miles from a small village called Marripákalu, I found a small tract of teak of superb growth. The area was perhaps not 200 acres, but has evidently been much curtailed by hill-cultivation and has occupied a larger area at some previous date. There were a good many trees seven to nine feet in girth and sixty or seventy feet high, with a perfectly straight trunk, and saplings were numerous. The tree was hardly observed at all elsewhere on the mountains; and it is curious that its area should be restricted.'
Among the most characteristic trees of these hills are the gallnut (Terminalia Chebula), the nalla maddi (T. tomentosa) , Cedrela microcarpa, a species of the valuable 'false cedar' which occurs in numbers near Gúdem, stunted Buchanania latifoiia, which is found on grassy flats, Pterocarpus Marsupium, Anogeissus latifoiia and Aacuminata on the banks of streams, while on the outer slopes are wide areas covered with bamboo.
The two largest reserves are Dárakonda, called after the prominent hill of that name, and Senivaram. They adjoin one another and clothe a conspicuous line of hills near the western boundary of the taluk, and together they are 122 square. miles in extent. A novel working-plan, designed to secure the protection of the reserves from their worst enemy, was sanctioned for this area at the end of 1903. The two reserves used to suffer terribly every year from the fires which swept through them — generally started by careless travellers in the patches of long grass which clothe the tops of the hills and occupy the sites of deserted villages — and the plan proposes to protect them by enlisting the co-operation of the local people. To villages within the limits of which no fires occur in any year either money rewards or certain valued privileges (such as free grazing for a certain number of cattle, the right to collect minor forest produce, and permission to draw sago toddy) are granted by the District Forest Officer in person at his annual inspection; while where fires occur the privileges are withdrawn and the rewards withheld. Until 1905 the plan worked well, the villagers realizing that the Government were really anxious to stop the fires and appreciating the advantages to be gained by assisting the endeavour.
In the forests in the Jeypore and Vizianagram zamindaris, conservation has lately been rendered possible by the introduction,{center|115}}
