CHAPTER VII
FORESTS
Rights of State in Waste.— Under Indian rule the State claimed full power of disposing of the waste, and, even where an exclusive right in the soil was not maintained, some valuable trees, e.g. the deodar in the Himalaya, were treated as the property of the Raja. Under the tenure prevailing in the hills the soil is the Raja's, but the people have a permanent tenant right in any land brought under cultivation with his permission. In Kulu the British Government asserted its ownership of the waste. In the south-western Panjab, where the scattered hamlets had no real boundaries, ample waste was allotted to each estate, and the remainder was claimed as State property.
Kinds of Forest.— The lands in the Panjab over which authority, varying through many degrees from full ownership unburdened with rights of user down to a power of control exercised in the interests of the surrounding village communities, may be roughly divided into
- (a) Mountain forests;
- (b) Hill forests;
- (c) Scrub and grass Jangal in the Plains
The first are forests of deodar, blue pine, fir, and oak in the Himalaya above the level of 5000 feet. The hill
