102 EAST INDIA. 



The remaining 15 millions of acres derive their water from 

 the rain which falls on the heated surface of low lands and 

 moderately high hills. The larger the proportion of the 

 catchment areas, whence this irrigation water comes, which 

 is shaded by forest vegetation, the more favourable and sus- 

 tained will be the supply of water. Here, then, is a mission 

 which forestry in India has to fulfil. 



The mechanical action of forest vegetation on sloping 

 ground, also, is not without importance in India. There is 

 sufficient evidence to show what careless or injudicious clear- 

 ing of forests may do. Anyone who has ever stood on the 

 hills behind Hoshiarpur in the Punjab and looked down upon 

 the plain stretching out towards the south-west, has carried 

 away an impression which he is not likely to forget. In that 

 part the Siwalik range consists of an exceedingly friable rock, 

 looking almost like sand caked together. Formerly, the 

 range was covered with a growth of forest vegetation, but a 

 number of years ago cattle owners settled in it, and under the 

 combined attacks of man, buffaloes, cows, sheep and goats 

 the natural growth disappeared, while the tread of the 

 beasts loosened the soil. The annual monsoon rains, though 

 not heavy, soon commenced a process of erosion and of carry- 

 ing away the surface soil. Gradually, small and then large 

 ravines and torrents were formed which have torn the hill 

 range into the most fantastic shapes, while the debris has 

 been carried into the plains forming fan-shaped accumulations 

 of sand. These, commencing at the places where the torrents 

 emerge from the hills, reach for miles into the plain, and 

 have already covered and rendered sterile extensive areas of 

 formerly fertile fields. Indeed, one of these currents, or drifts 

 of sand, has actually carried aM'ay a portion of the town of 

 Hoshiarpur. The evil has by no means reached its maximum 

 extent,* and, if curative measures are not adopted at an early 

 date, the progress of transporting the hill range into the plain 

 will go on until the greater part of the fertile plain stretching 



* See Biuleu Powell's pamphlet. 



