Past and present of Indian forest management The history of Indian forest surveys goes back to over 2300 years, when the Mauryan empire conducted the first authentic survey. But, the present system of organised forest management was launched by the British empire, says a government report. THE HISTORY of forest surveys goes back to the Mauryan period in the third century BC. Chandra Gupta Maurya conducted the first authentic study and classified forests according to the functions they were required to perform such as religious, production, grazing for royal elephants, hunting and public use. But as there was no threat of dwindling green cover during that time, detailed records were not maintained. During the Mughal rule, surveys were limited to royal hunting reserves. A report by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) says that the first forest survey was launched in South India in 1800 by the British rulers. A commission was set up to study the availability of teak in Malabar region. During the first half of 19th century conservators and superintendents were appointed to survey forest resources and manage the assets all over the country. In 1863, the Conservator of Forests of Madras made a systematic collection of all information related to the working of the forests and produced the first 'Manual of Forests Operations'. This could be considered as the first step towards formal codification of the results of forest survey in the shape of written documents later to be known as 'working plan'. In due course, these working plans contained detailed forest maps based on the results of forest survey. In 1865, Brandis was appointed the first Inspector General of Forests working directly under the orders of Government of India. His job was to introduce a system of scientific management and conservation of forests through systematic forest surveys and preparation of working plans based on it. Prior to 1910, forest surveys and mapping were carried out by Survey of India at scales decided by Superintendent of Survey in consultation with the forest departments. After 1910, forest surveys were made ancillary to topographical surveys. The boundaries of legal forest areas are indicated by double dot lines while information about forest cover is shown in the form of green wash in these maps. After Independence in 1947, all princely states were merged into the Indian Union along with their forest areas. A further big addition of forest areas took place as a result of abolition of zamindari and proprietary rights in forest. The National Forest Policy enunciated in 1952 laid emphasis on forest surveys and demarcation along with other aspects of forest development. However, till 1960 non-availability of classified data of forest-wealth was a major problem in planning of scientific utilization of forest. To overcome this, a complete and broad survey of forest resources was required. Keeping this in view, a project named "Pre-Investment Surveys of Forest Resources" was undertaken by the Government in collaboration with UNDP/FAO in 1965. The PIB website informs that in 1976, the National Commission on Agriculture, realizing the importance of collection of data of a more general nature on a national level, recommended the creation of a National Forests Resources Survey Organisation. As a result of this recommendation, PISFR was converted into Forest Survey of India (FSI) in June, 1981. Till date, this organisation conducts the field work with its headquarters based in Dehradun. http://india.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=135751 --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India