Those civil forests, which had been given to the agriculturists of Bhabar and Tarai from the time of Sir Henry Ramsay, Commissioner, have now been turned into reserve forests so far that rangers, foresters, and forest guards have been appointed for them, on account of which all the subjects of Bhabar and Tarai are in distress, and they have now ventured to approach Your Honour with their humble request. It is clear that the cultivation of land in Bhabar and Tarai depends equally on the forests as on the canal works in these parganas.

Petition of Govind Ram Pande and others, residents of Bhabar and Tarai to the Lt. Governor, United Provinces, File 7, 1906–7, prog. 17, box 159, COR, RA Nainital.

The most troublesome right to be inquired into, however, is the right to firewood from fallen wood. In spite of the most minute inquiries the right-holders could not say to what extent they resorted to the reserves for firewood, and it appeared to the Settlement Officer that perhaps some villages did not go to the reserves at all. There were different opinions as regards necessity for the specification of this right, but after some correspondence it was finally decided that firewood came under the legal definition of timber and must be specified. To be on the safe side, the Settlement Officer has estimated firewood for all the villages whose right to it had been recorded by Colone Garstin (previous Settlement Officer), and an annual allowance of 50 headloads for a family is considered sufficiently liberal,… […]