Chapter IV CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF CONTROLLED FORESTS

The control and management of every Controlled Forest shall vest in the State Government.

The State Government shall, by notification, appoint a Forest Officer for the purposes of one or more Controlled Forests or of a specified portion thereof.

The State Government may invest any Forest officer with all or any of the following powers, that is to say: (a) power to enter upon a land and to survey, demarcate and make a map of the same; (b) the power of a Civil Court to compel the attendance of witnessers and the production of documents and material objects; and (c) power to hold inquiry into forest offences and in the course of such inquiry to receive and record evidence.

The Forest Officer shall demarcate the Controlled Forest or portion of the Controlled Forest for which he is appointed in such manner as may appear to be necessary in the circumstances of the case.

The Forest Officer appointed for any Controlled Forest shall, subject to the requirements of any working plan prepared for the forest, allow the landlord or right-holders of such forests to cut, collect or remove therefrom such quantity of trees, timber or other forest produce as may, in the opinion of the Forest Officer, be required for his reasonable agricultural or domestic needs.

The State Government shall receive all revenues accruing from the working and management of a Controlled Forest and shall pay the whole expenditure incurred in the working and management of such forest, and the landlord of such forest or any other persons shall not be entitled to make any objection to any expenditure that the State Government may consider it necessary to incur on such working and management.

The State Government, or any authority appointed by them in this behalf, shall maintain in the prescribed manner a revenue and expenditure account, the working and management of every Controlled Forest and shall supply an abstract of the yearly account to the landlord of such forest.

(1) The State Government shall during the period of its control and management of any Controlled Forest pay, at prescribed intervals, to the landlord of the area comprising- I. Forest.-(a) an allowance calculated on the total area of the forest as determined by the Forest Officer at the rate of four annas per acre per annum or such higher rate not exceeding eight annas per acre per annum as the Forest Officer may, from time to time, by general or special order, determine ; and (b) the net profits, if any, accruing for the working and management of the forest will be paid to the owner, after deducting ten per cent, as the cost of management. II. Wasteland- (a) no allowance will be paid; (b) when all expenses incurred by the State Government for the afforestation of any such land have been recouped, the profits resulting from such afforestation shall, during the period the resulting from such afforestation shall, during the period the control of such land remains vested in a Forest Officer be paid to t he owner after deducting ten per cent as the cost of management. (2) For the purpose of calculating the net profits, the total expenditure incurred on the working and management of the Forest shall be adjusted against the total income from the working and management up to the date of account and the amount of any deficit shall be carried forward without interest from year to year till such amount is made up and supply is affected. (3) For the purposes of sub-section (2)- (a) the total expenditure shall include the allowance paid to the landlord concerned under clause (a) of sub-section (1) and any sum determined as compensation under sub-section (1) of section 31 or the value of anything taken from the forest under sub-section (3) of that section; and (b) the total income shall include the proceeds of confiscation or forfeiture for forest offences not committed by the landlord in respect of the forest or the forest produce thereof after deducting from such proceeds- (i) the rewards, if any, paid to informers and officers out of such proceeds, and (ii) such incidental expenses as may be fixed by the Forest Officer including that incurred for the storage, transport and sale of the articles or forest produce forfeited or confiscated.

The rights of right-holders in a Controlled Forest shall be exercised in accordance with the rules.

The Forest Officer may, with a view to the more efficient management and control of the forests, order that the Controlled Forests under his control in more than one village and under more than one landlord shall be grouped together.

(1) When the Forest Officer has ordered the grouping of Controlled Forests under section 46, he may direct that the rights of right-holders in a Controlled Forest shall be exercised in such portion of such group as he may order. (2) In passing orders under sub-section (1) the Forest Officer shall have regard to the conveniences of the right-holders so far as that is possible without prejudicing the efficient administration and conservation of the Controlled Forest.

When the right-holder's share of the produce of a Controlled Forest is insufficient in any year to meet the maximum requirements of the right-holders, the Forest Officer shall determine for that year the amount of such produce which each right-holder may take in accordance with the rules.

(1) The State Government may, at any time, by notification, declare that the provisions of this chapter shall cease to apply to a Controlled Forest from such date as may be specified in the notification and that, with effect from the date, the forest shall cease to be a Controlled Forest. (2) If on the date of the publication of notification under sub-section (1) the balance-sheet of the revenue and expenditure account prepared under section 43 shows that any amount is due to the State Government in respect of the management and working of such forest, such amount shall be recovered from the owner as may be determined generally or specially by the State Government.