80 REPORT 1851. 



banks of the Ganges, as it issues from the hills, and beyond it ; while other 

 parts are not only bare of trees, but even of vegetation of any kind, as the 

 deserts which run parallel with the Indus, and stretch more or less into the 

 interior of India. The North-western Provinces, as well as many parts of 

 the Peninsula of India, are generally bare of timber-trees, as are also the 

 highly cultivated Southern Provinces of Bengal. But in most parts of India 

 clumps of trees may be seen by the traveller in every direction in which he 

 can look. This is owing to the Indian practice of embowering every village 

 in a clump or tope of trees, generally of the Mango, but frequently the 

 Bur, Peepul, Tamarind, &c. are found, some yielding fruit, others grateful for 

 their shade, and some yielding fodder for elephants and camels. In the 

 neighbourhood of every village also may be seen tracts of jungle, more or 

 less extensive, which by some are accounted so much waste land. They ai'e 

 often composed of long grass, or of low shrubs, as the Dhakand wild Jujube, 

 with a few trees intermixed, as the Babool and Seriss. These tracts, though 

 disfiguring the rich appearance of a cultivated country, are far from useless, 

 as they form the only pastures wliich the natives possess for their cattle, as 

 well as their whole source of supply for firewood, and whatever timber 

 may be required for the building of their huts or the making of their agri- 

 cultural implements. 



From the number and extent of the forests and jungles of India, it might 

 be inferred that timber was abundant in all parts, not only for home con- 

 sumption, but that a supply might be obtained for foreign commerce : this is 

 far from being the case. Though forest lands are extensive, their contents 

 in accessible situations are not of a nature, or sufficiently abundant, to 

 supply even the ordinary demands. In India, as in other long inhabited 

 and early civilized countries, the parts best adapted for agricultural purposes 

 have long been cleared of jungle. The forests lying nearest to the inha- 

 bited tracts were first stript of their timber, and as no precautions have been 

 taken to replace the old trees, a gradual diminution has been observed in the 

 supply of timber, which has consequently increased in price (as may be seen 

 in the Government contracts for building and the Commissariat outlay for 

 firewood), not solely from actual deficiency, but because timber is only ob- 

 tainable from less accessible situations, with considerable increase of labour 

 and expense. 



As the principal cities where the greatest demand for timber exists are in 

 the centre of cultivated tracts, so are they necessarily remote from the forests 

 from which they require wood, either for the construction of houses and 

 machinery for ship-building, or other purposes. Hence a commerce in 

 timber has long been established in India. Calcutta and the cities situated 

 on the Ganges are supplied with timber grown in the forests which skirt the 

 foot of the Himalayan Mountains, from Assam to the banks of the Junma. 

 These supplies are floated on rafts down the numerous feeders of the Ganges, 

 which forms the great artery of the plains of India. But this is not suflfi- 

 cient for the consumption of Calcutta, as considerable quantities are im- 

 ported from the Burman Empire. In the same way there is an insufficient 

 supply for the Madras Presidency, which is made up by importing timber 

 from Ceylon. 



Bombay has long been celebrated for the building of ships with teak-wood, 

 supplied from the forests of Malabar and Canara, whence timber seems always 

 to have been exported even to Arabia and Persia. 



Looking at the extent of India, and reading of its interminable jungles, it 

 may seem a work of supererogation to talk of the deficiency of timber or of 

 the necessity of protecting its forests. Timber to be valuable must be of the 



