ABSTRACT
Extensive inquiries had been made and were in progress, and the Board hoped shortly to lay before the Government a revised scheme for Sundarban lands. The assessment in a great part of the Sundarbans was higher than in the adjacent permanently-settled estates—a circumstance that hampered reclamation in the first instance and also led to the relapse of cultivation and the ruin of the grantee. The Board pronounced it hopeless to look for the clearance of the Sundarbans so long as the existing rates were demanded. The paramount object of Government in devising the rules was declared to be the reclamation of the Sundarbans—a pestilential tract near Calcutta which afforded a home for wild animals and shelter to smugglers and pirates. The Government, after considering all the views and suggestions, announced its decision in its no. 306, dated 9th April 1853, to the Board of Revenue.
