April i8, 1901] 



NA TURE 



\97 



INDIAN FORESTRY} 



BEFORE retiring from the Indian Forest Service the autho; 

 obtained the sanction of Government to the publication o 

 this volume, which contains a brief description of the forests and 

 a sketch of the introduction and growth of forestry in the British 

 Indian Empire. In the preface he says : " My career m the 

 Indian Forest Service has extended over thirty-three years, and 

 though I was not in the country when regular forest conservancy 

 was first introduced, I arrived when it was still quite a small 

 sapling, and I have seen it grow to the mighty tree it is at 

 present, under the wide-spreading shadow of which I have grown 

 old." 



Mr. Ribbentrop is one of the two young German forest officers 

 whom the writer of these lines in 1866 was permitted to engage 

 for the Indian Forest Service. He came from Hanover, where 

 he had received his professional training, and had worked under 

 the late Forst-director Burckhardt, one of the most eminent 

 foresters of his day in Germany. The other was Dr. W. Schlich, 

 now principal professor of forestry at Coopers Hill, whose 

 excellent " Manual of Forestry " has repeatedly been discussed in 

 these columns. - 



Obviously it is out of the question, within the space here 

 available, to follow the author through his description of the 

 forests and through his account of the earlier stages of forest 

 administration in India ; it must suffice, briefly, to state a few of 

 the principal results accomplished and to indicate the lines on 

 which, in the interest of the 294 millions inhabiting the large 

 British Indian Empire, further progress in this business ought 

 to be made. As it will be satisfactory to deal with the last 

 figures available, those for 1898-99 will, in a .''ew cases, be quoted, 

 the book giving only those to the end of 1897-98. 



In 1899 the area of reserved Government forests in the 

 different British provinces of India aggregated 84,148 square 

 miles, or 54,000,000 acres, more than the total area of England 

 and Ireland together. The State forests of the German Empire 

 only aggregate 16,400 square miles. These are very large 

 figures, but the British Indian Empire is a very large country. 

 Of the total area of the German Empire the State forests 

 occupy 8 and in the British provinces of India the Government 

 reserved forests occupy 86 per cent, of the total area. At first 

 sight this seems a most satisfactory result ; the Indian State 

 forests constitute a slightly higher percentage than those of the 

 German Empire, a country where the necessity of good forest 

 management is acknowledged to the fullest extent. Besides the 

 16,400 square miles of State forests, however, there are large 

 areas of Crown forests, of forests belonging to public corporations, 

 there are, further, 8400 square miles of communal and 26,000 

 square miles of private forests. All these, excepting a small 

 proportion of the private forests, are managed as efficiently as 

 the State forests. The Governments in the different States have 

 shown the way, they have taken the lead in the management of 

 their forest domains, and the other proprietors have gradually 

 followed suit. The total forest area of the German Empire 

 amounts to 54,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, of the entire area. 

 Sixty years ago Germany was an important timber exporting 

 country, since then, as a necessary consequence of the develop- 

 ment of industries and manufactures, and the increase of wealth, 

 the imports have gradually exceeded the exports. Now it is 

 only second to Great Britain in the list of timber importing 

 countries, and this is so, although the annual production of wood 

 per annum is increasing steadily, as the result of the great pro- 

 gress made in forest management. The total annual production 

 of timber and firewood of the German forests is estimated at 

 38,000,000 tons, and this is supplemented by an import of 

 4,600,000 tons. The material progress of the country would not 

 be possible had it not the large home production to fall back 

 upon. There are other forest lands in India which are nomin- 

 ally under the control of the Forest Department, viz. 8800 

 square miles of protected and 27,700 square miles of unclassed 

 forests, but in these areas protection is nominal, and they are 

 not managed with a view to a sustained yield. The reserved 

 forests are the only trustworthy resource for the future, and these, 

 as stated, only form 8-6 percent, of the total area. One of the 

 excellent maps appended to the book illustrates the distribution 

 of these forests in the different parts of the Empire, and this 



1 " Forestry in British India." By Berthold Ribbentrop, C.I.E., late 

 Inspector-General of Forests to the Government of India. Pp. ii + 245, 

 with 4 map;. (Calcutta : Office of the Superintendent of Government Print- 

 ing, India, 1900). Price 4^. 6d. 



2 Nature, vol. xli. p. 121 ; vol. xliv. p. 265 ; vol. liii. pp. 510, 535. 



NO. 1642, VOL. 63] 



map shows at a glance the very unequal distribution. Berar 

 has 23, the Central Provinces have 22, Burma has 9, but the 

 North- West Provinces and Oudh have only 36 and the Punjab 

 only 2 per cent, of Government reserved forests. 



Nevertheless, it is an important point gained that so large an 

 area is at the disposal of Government and that it is managed, 

 so far as circumstances permit, with the view of obtaining from 

 it a sustained and, if possible, steadily increasing yield of 

 timber and other forest produce. The reader will ask the 

 question whether it is right to lock up so large an area and to 

 prevent the extension of cultivation, the establishnient of fields 

 within that area, in a country the population of which is mainly 

 agricultural and is increasing steadily, which, indeed, is in- 

 creasing with alarming rapidity in some districts and provinces. 



What, then, has been the object in constituting this large area 

 of reserved forest, and what is the object in maintaining it under 

 forest? The author holds that the old records of Indian 

 history, down to the invasion of the Punjab by Alexander 

 the Great, prove that in those days extensive forests existed, 

 and that the wholesale destruction of these forests has had the 

 most deteriorating effect on the climate. He does not go so far 

 as to maintain that by afforestation of large tracts the climate 

 might be improved to such an extent as to stop the recurrence 

 of these terrible seasons of drought, which are one of the chief 

 difficulties with which the Government of India has to deal. It 

 is evident, however, that his thoughts run in this direction. 

 Doubtless it is not safe to lay stress upon such arguments. 

 We may readily assent to the words of the author : " In a warm 

 climate the denudation of a country diminishes its moisture arid 

 consequently its fertility" without indulging in the hope that in 

 seasons of drought the presence of forests will increase the 

 rainfall. 



The local influence, however, of well-stocked forests in India 

 no intelligent person, who knows the country, will deny. Well- 

 stocked forests afford shelter to fields, to man and beast against 

 the scorching winds of the hot season, and the devv is heavier 

 in their vicinity. Of much greater importance still is the effect 

 of well-stocked forests in regulating the surface drainage, in 

 maintaining an even water supply in springs and streairis, in 

 preventing the denudation of hillsides, the silting up of rivers, 

 and the destruction of fields and gardens in the plains by the 

 sand and silt washed down from the hills. The author quotes a 

 description of the Ratnagiri district on the western coast of the 

 Peninsula, south of Bombay:—" Under a rainfall between loo 

 and 150 inches a year, this district is almost bare to the crest of 

 the ghats, the result of fires, grazing and shifting cultivation. 

 The four principal streams, which, rising in the Ghat Mountains, 

 run a short course to the sea, were all navigable formerly, and 

 were important for the trade of the country. Small boats still 

 run, but the streams are gradually silting up, because the hills at 

 their headwaters have become denuded. " 



In the Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab the Siwalik range of 

 hills stretches from the Bias to the Sutlej river in a south- 

 easterly direction. These hills consist of a very soft friable 

 sandstone, alternating with strata of loam and clay. Formerly 

 these hills were fairly well wooded. In 1846 they became 

 British territory ; the consequence was a rapid increase of 

 population, a great demand for wood and charcoal in the fertile 

 plains below, and the influx of a floating population of graziers 

 with large herds of cattle. The result was complete denudation 

 of these hills ; the loose soil, no longer protected by vegetation, 

 was washed down, broad rivers of sand spread into the plains 

 below, and the end has been that fields and gardens of 940 

 villages, once prosperous, are now covered with sand, which 

 has laid waste upwards of 70,000 acres of fertile lands. This 

 district, rich formerly, is now traversed by numerous broad 

 parallel sandy belts, cut out of the fertile and crop-bearing area. 



Efficient protection of the reserved forests was only coni- 

 menced a comparatively short time ago, and yet the author is 

 able to state numerous instances from different parts of the 

 country, in which protection has completely changed the cha- 

 racter of the torrents and streams taking their rise in the forests. 

 After rain, the water no longer rushes down, carrying sand and 

 silt with it ; the channels have been confined into permanent 

 beds ; they have become narrower and deeper, and the old beds 

 to the edge of the channel have become stocked with grass and 

 thousands of seedlings. The regulation of the underground 

 waterflow takes more time, but Mr. Ribbentrop is able to report 

 a case where, near a protected reserve in Ajmere, water is 

 now found at the depth of 15 feet, where formerly it was not 



