108 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



will be drained of their moisture, even to a greater extent than if 

 there were fewer forests, and there might possibly be less condensa- 

 tion and less rainfall in the dry country beyond. 



Nevertheless, there is no doubt that every grove and every group 

 of trees in the dry and arid regions of India is a blessing, the value 

 of -which cannot be estimated too highly ; and though we may not 

 be able to raise extensive forests in these districts without irrigation, 

 yet a great deal can be done by improving and extending the 

 wooded tracts along the borders of the dry country. Save in the 

 most arid districts, mere protection from cattle, cutting, and fires 

 is sufficient to produce, not, it is true, dense forests, but brushwood 

 and _ grass, which certainly, in a small way, serve to keep the 

 ground cooler and moister. There is no country in India where the 

 beneficial effects of mere preservation of brushwood tracts in a dry 

 climate may be better studied than in some of the native states of 

 Kajpootana. Such chiefs as the Rajah of Kishengurh, the Thakoors 

 of Bednore and of Humeergurh, and their ancestors, have set a 

 good example, which the forest officers of the British Government 

 will do well to imitate. 



Whatever views may be held regarding such slow, gradual, and 

 limited effects of forest growth upon the climate, there is no doubt 

 that, in a hilly country, forests enable us in many cases better to 

 husband the existing water supply for irrigation. Whether the 

 drainage from the hills is collected in tanks and artificial lakes, as is 

 the case in Eajpootana and Mysore, or whether it is employed to 

 feed canals, to carry water, fertility, and wealth into distant districts, 

 the object is the same, to utilise to the utmost the water supply 

 available during the year. Experience in India and elsewhere has 

 proved that where hills are bare, the rain rushes down in torrents, 

 carrying away loose soil, sand, and stones, silting up rivers and 

 canals, breaching or overflowing dams and embankments; but that 

 Avhere the hills are covered with meadows, fields, or forest, the super- 

 ficial drainage is gradual, the dry weather discharge of rivers regular, 

 the springs better supplied ; in short, all conditions united to ensure 

 the more regular and useful filling of tanks and canals ; and in many 

 cases the attainment of these objects is in itself of sufficient im- 

 portance to justify measures for the preservation and improvement 

 of natural woodlands, and for guarding against the denudation of 

 hilly tracts. The preservation of forests may be made necessary by 

 other objects of a cognate nature ; for instance, in order to protect 

 roads and bridges in hilly tracts, to guard against landslips, to pre- 



