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Rh CHAPTER V. FORESTS.

—Government forests; beginnings of conseivancy—Character of the forests; in Sarvasiddhi—In Palkonda— And in Golgonda—Zamindari forests—The Jeyporo forests; existing reserves—Destruction in former days—Situation and characteristics.

the forests of the district, Government owns only those in the three Government taluks of Golgonda, Palkonda and Sarvasiddhi; and these are limited in extent and value.

Far the best growth is that which lies in the Jeypore zamindari and is thus outside direct State control, but in this estate (and also in the Vizianagram zamindari) steps have been taken in recent years (see below) to ensure some degree of protection against the wholesale destruction which has proceeded too long unchecked.

The worst enemy of the forests of the district has always been the system of cultivation practised by the hill people and called kondapudu or podu. This consists in felling a piece of jungle, burning the felled trees and undergrowth, sowing dry grain broadcast in the ashes (without any kind of tilling) for two years in succession, and then abandoning the plot for another elsewhere.

The Government forests may be first referred to.1 Those notified under section 16 of the Forest Act now consist of 213 square miles in Golgonda taluk, 62 in Palkonda and 23 in Sarvasiddhi. In addition, about 530 square miles in the Golgonda Agency (the most valuable of all the Vizagapatam Government forests) and about 100 square miles in the Palkonda Agency are protected by rules framed under section 26 of the Act.

As far back as 1865 Mr. Carmichael, the then Collector, drew the attention of the authorities to the value of the growth on the Golgonda hills, and suggested that it should be placed under the Conservator of Forests. He said that the reckless manner in which all the zamindari forests were being denuded made it the more imperative that Government should endeavour to conserve the few jungles which belonged to them. On this it was ordered