India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace].

  • Robert Wallace
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    482/550 page 396
    29^ wide area, I, in my non-official position, had very exceptional opportunities of seeing how the forest regulations pressed unnecessarily upon the people, and of hearing their bitter and oftentimes well-founded complaints. I came to the conclusion, that however numerous and however effective the calls for the establishment of an Indian Agricultural Department might be, there was none so urgent as that for the protection of the interests of the Empire, apart altogether from the interests of private individuals, against the encroachments, however well intentioned, of the Forestry Department. What has been accomplished by this department is merely a fraction of what will be undertaken sooner or later. There is no reason why forestry should not be greatly extended, and that to the advantage rather than to the detriment of the agricultural community ; but already it has been shown that this cannot be safely left to the ordinary civilian and forest officers, who cannot understand, however much they might strive to do so, the bearings of certain changes on a matter so complicated and so intricate as agriculture. The greatest interest in the country will always continue to suffer and to be sacrificed until Government sees fit to employ officers who are capable, from their own special knowledge, to advise in regard to all matters which affect the agricultural interests. Another prominent sign of the hollowness of the present policy is the fact that much of the valuable time of the heads of the Forestry Department is taken up in fighting the Agricultural Department. This is merely a matter of history repeating itself, and as in the old story of a quarrel arising between the servants—the chief butler and the chief baker—of a great lord, the one who for the moment is not in favour gets worsted, but the greatest loser is the master himself. The triumph of one servant over the other is at the master’s expense: his interests arc sunk in the efforts of each to gain supremacy.
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