46 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Administration Report for 1908-9 the forest area of Tripura was as follows : 1. Reserved Forest............... 20 sq. miles 2. Unclassed Open Forest... 3,861 „ „ According to the above Report : "The Birendranagar Reserve Forest has continued in a good condition. No important fire was reported from the forests during the year, but unless jhooming be entirely prohibited within the area, there can be no safety of the forests from fire."4 What were declared to be 'reserve' forests were in fact forests where the forest-dwellers had been deprived of nearly all their traditional rights. Upto the twenties of the present century, the area of Reserved Forest in Tripura increased rather slowly, but during the thirties and forties it increased very rapidly. We have seen that in 1908-09, the total area of Reserved Forest was only 20 sq. miles, but the total forest area reserved upto 1940 was 530.05 sq. miles.5 After 1940 it was 630 sq. miles6;' and later on, it rose to 116005 sq. miles7. Such an extension of Reserved Forest had its inevitable impact on thejhumias of Tripura who were forced to shift to other places. But this also created a problem for the rulers— the shortage of labour within the Forest Reserve. In this connection it is interesting to read an official document: "Thus, there will be difficulty in felling'the timber and bamboos and also in carrying the forest products downhill; the businessmen will suffer losses and the State earning on Forest tolls will diminish. The duty levied on cotton and oilseeds, which are produced solely on jhum, will also not fetch in any money to the exchequer."8 Hence, the idea of creating more and more Reserved Forests was discarded by the Tripura Durbar. In 1356 T.E., D.A.W. Brown, Minister for Forests and Customs Department, Government of Tripura, declared : "The Jhumias may do jhum cultivation this year in the area in which they raised jhum crops a few years ago irrespective of the area being in the Reserved Forests, or anywhere else."9 In order to get a sustained supply of labourers for the Reserved Forests, a number of "Forest Villages" were set up as well. How the forests of Tripura were assigned the primary role of a revenue-generating organ in the past by the Forest Department of the state can be seen from official records and documents. Apart from land revenue from the plain lands, the most important sources of state revenue were the ^har Chukti Kar' (House Tax) in the hills, duties on forest products and also from the sale of elephants captured from the forests (by Kheda operation). In a statistical supplement annexed to his Report for 1874-75, the Political Agent of Hill Tipperah stated that in his opinion forest produce was "the most important source of revenue belonging to the State, and would prove the most lucrative of all, if properly worked. It is at present managed, with one exception, on the farming system; but for want of accurate knowledge as to what the farms are capable of yielding, they are let out in almost all cases at absurdly low rents."^