The Forests of India

Abstract

IT would perhaps be difficult to find stronger evidence of the changes which have taken place in the management of the forests of India and the almost complete manner in which the Secretary of State for India, and the Central Government of India itself, are dissociating themselves from their administration, than is provided by the Inspector-General of Forest's Quinquennial Review ending March 31, 1939. (Ann. Return of Statistics relating to Forest Administration in British India for 1938-39 and Quinquennial Review ending March 31, 1939. Govt. of India Press, Calcutta, 1941.) For well over half a century the forests of India, their protection and improvement (and incidentally the increasing revenue they yielded), had formed a personal pre-occupation of successive Secretaries of State for India and (with that spur) of successive Governors-General and Viceroys. With increasing efficiency in management it became no longer possible for an inspector-general to portray in an annual report, kept within official requirements of space, the work being carried out throughout India and Burma. The latter was therefore reduced to tabular statements of statistics only, whilst a quinquennial report gave an eye-picture of the progress in management and the position of the forest estate.