Higher Forestry Education for the Empire

Abstract

THE question has been recently raised by the Government of India as to the advisability of either training the probationers for the Indian Forest Service entirely in India or confining the training to one centre in this country. The question has come to the front owing to the changes to be introduced in the administration of India, under which a larger proportion of Indians will enter the Indian Forest Service in the future, it being therefore considered desirable to train the European and Indian probationers all together. The professional forestry opinion of Indian officials, with which Prof. Troup and I agree, would appear to be unanimous in condemning the possibility of training the forest probationers in India owing to the fact that the Indian forests are, as yet, very far from having reached the standard necessary to provide students with the full practical object-lessons which are to be seen only in forest areas which have been under scientific management through one or two rotations of the crops.