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94 the property of the State.1 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

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.