ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 107 



fall. There is not yet, however, sufficient evidence to prove that 

 a material deterioration of the climate has been the result of denuda- 

 tion in any part of India. Much less has it been established that 

 by preserving and extending the forests we may hope considerably 

 to increase the rainfall. Not that a country covered with forests 

 is not under certain circumstances likely to have more frequent 

 and heavier showers than a hot barren desert, but there is no pro- 

 spect of our carrying out in India any measures on a sufficiently 

 large scale to effect any appreciable improvement of the climate. In 

 the moist zones, and in a large portion of the intermediate region, 

 the country would not benefit if the total annual rainfall was in- 

 creased. The land would undoubtedly produce more frequent and 

 heavier crops if we could by any means more equally distribute the 

 moisture over all seasons of the year. The seasons in India, however, 

 are regulated by the dry north-easterly winds which prevail during 

 one half of the year, and the wet south-westerly currents which 

 reign during the other half; and these again are the results of the 

 rotation of our globe, the position of the sun, and the distribution 

 of land and water on our hemisphere, and of other cosmic pheno- 

 mena which will not be affected by any forest cultivation in India. 

 What might be extremely useful would be to increase the rainfall 

 in the arid and dry regions, where the cidtivation of the land to a 

 great extent depends on irrigation, and where a dry season causes 

 famine of the most terrible character. If by any means we could 

 increase the atmospheric moisture in the drier districts of the 

 Deccan, in parts of Mysore, Eajpootana, Sinclh, and the Southern 

 Punjab, these countries might maintain a dense population in pro- 

 sperity. But of such improvements all prospect is denied to us. 

 If it were possible to cover any large proportion of these dry districts 

 with forests, the stratum of air overlying the top of these forests 

 would undoubtedly be cooler and moister, and during the south- 

 west monsoon this would certainly bring down a few additional 

 showers. But it is not possible. Save along the banks of rivers, 

 there is no moisture to raise and to maintain such forests, which 

 I fear will remain a fond hope not to be realised in our time. 

 By preserving and improving the woods along the coast of the 

 western ghats, it has been stated that the rainfall in the dry country 

 beyond might be increased. As far as our knowledge reaches at 

 present, it seems probable that heavy forests along the edge of the 

 ghats, and in their vicinity, have the effect of increasing the local 

 fall of rain along this belt; but if this is the case, the westerly winds 



