9-1 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



Protection against fires is not an easy task in our European forests. 

 Many square miles of Scotch fir in Eastern Prussia, where this 

 widely spread tree is the prevailing kind, have at various times been 

 burned down, and in the cork oak and Pinus maritima forests of 

 Provence the ravages have been terrible, the long summer drought 

 of Eastern Europe and of Southern France having in this respect 

 the same effect as the long dry season in India. Put in India the 

 task has been a particularly difficult one. The first step was to con- 

 vince people that these fires were injurious, and when that was 

 accomplished, to isolate the tracts to be protected by cleaving broad 

 firepaths round them, and burning down, early in the dry season, all 

 grass and leaves in a broad belt surrounding the forest. The credit 

 of having been the first to take in hand this important work on a 

 large scale is due to Colonel Pearson, in those days in charge of the 

 forests in the Central Provinces, and now holding a most important 

 position in the Forest Department under the Government of India. 

 It is mainly due to his energy and perseverance that fires have been 

 kept out for more than six years from a large forest tract of thirty 

 square miles, called the Bori Forest, producing teak, bamboos, and 

 various useful trees, in the Satpoora range. The effect has been 

 marvellous, and if these exertions are steadily continued, this forest 

 promises to become one of the most valuable in the central parts of 

 India. 



From what has been said, it will be understood, that in the plains 

 and lower hills of India the annual repose of arborescent vegetation 

 is not caused by the cold of winter, but mainly by the drought of 

 the hot season. Shortly before the rains set in, or with the early 

 showers which precede the monsoon, most trees clothe themselves 

 with fresh green, and in the arid region, where the periodical summer 

 rains are wanting, the summer floods of the river revive the forest 

 growth on its banks after the long drought of the dry season. In 

 those parts of India which have a heavy monsoon, the temperature 

 is generally somewhat lower during the summer months, June, July, 

 and August, than during the preceding hot season. Thus it is that 

 on the western coast of the Peninsula the mean temperature of the 

 hot season is 85°, and that of the three succeeding months, when the 

 sky is overcast with clouds, and the force of the sun's rays is rarely 

 felt, is only between 80° and 82°. On the Burma coast also, in 

 Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein, the mean temperature of the mon- 

 soon months is somewhat lower than that of the preceding hot sea- 

 son. The relief from the incessant powerful action of the sun's rays, 



