SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL, BY THE DISTRICT FOREST OFFICER;PANDURANGA PAI AND KUCHUR SUBBA ROW Vs. MANJESHWAR KRISHNAYYA ANDKINHANNA SHETTY, KARIASTA TO THE RAJAH OF VITTAL; THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL, BY THE DISTRICT FOREST

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Appeals and Second Appeals arise out of decisions of the Forest Settlement Officer rejecting the claims made by certain wargdars in South Canara to tracts of forest land which Government proposed to reserve as Government Reserved Forest under the Forest Act of 1882.

(2.) The important question of principle that is raised is with regard to the right of Government in the forest and other waste lands of the District. Is it similar to that which is now well established in the other Districts of the Presidency, omitting Malabar; that is to say, is there a general presumption that forest and waste land not exclusively occupied by any person or body of persons, is the property of Government? Or, is the presumption similar to that which is now established in Malabar, viz., that such lands, like all other lands, are presumed to belong to some private person or family ? Or, is the true position that there is no presumption at all either one way or the other, and that the onus of establishing the claim lies in each case on the Government or the person who makes the claim;

(3.) The British Government took over the administration of the country in 1799 after the defeat and death of Tippu Sultan at Seringapatam, and Munro was sent to report on its condition and to administer it in 1800. In the course of that year he made three most valuable reports which are the chief source of the information, and often of the opinions, of succeeding administrators. It is certain that Munro and some of the early British administrators who took their opinions from him refer to "all land" in Canara as being "private land" held on ancient and indefeasible titles. But it is equally certain that they were not thinking of the great tracts of immemorial forest on the Western Ghats and elsewhere in the District and there is not a single expression in their reports which specially refers to these tracts which form so large a portion and so important a feature of the District as a whole. Writing in 1894 Mr. Sturrock says: "South Canara is essentially a Forest District. The slopes of the Western Ghats from north to south are clothed with dense forests of magnificent timber and the forest growth, stimulated by the heavy rainfall, approaches to within a few miles of the coast" in two specified places, but "generally the heavy forest begins from 20 to 30 miles from the coast . . Even on the plains, however, a large portion, of the Uppinangadi Taluq is covered with heavy forest, and jungle varying from moderate forest to mere scrub is to be found everywhere throughout an exceptionally largo area of waste land" (Manual of the South Canara District, p. 15).