Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/91



The forests are among the most valuable sources of the wealth of the Province. They are administered by Government through the agency of a skilled and highly trained staff of Forest officers. The object of the administration is the preservation of valuable trees, extraction on scientific lines with due provision for reproduction so that the supply of useful timber may not be exhausted, and the realization of State dues. An elaborate Act and still more complex Rules embody the principles of forest administration and prescribe its methods.

Briefly, the theory is that all forest land and forest produce belong to the State. But it is only over certain land and in the case of certain produce that State rights are fully enforced. There are two distinctions which must be understood in order that the situation in respect of