DEVELOPMENT OF FOKEST CONSER^'ANCY. 107 



he laboured steadfastly^ on the introduction of systematic 

 forest management into the various parts of the Bengal 

 Presidency. He also visited Bom])a3' twice to advise the 

 Government of that Presidency, and he entirely reorganised 

 the Madras Forest Department in 1881-83, after which he 

 retired. 



The first duty of the new Department was to ascertain the 

 extent of the remaining forests, and more especially that 

 portion of them which was still the property of the State. 

 As already shown, India is a country of extremes as far as 

 climate and rainfall are concerned. The latter more especially 

 governs the natural distribution of the forests. While 

 Jacobabad, in Sind, has a rainfall of 4 inches a year, 

 Cherrapunji, in the Khasi Hills, can boast of a fall exceeding 

 500 inches a year. Where rainfall and temperature are 

 favourable the reproductive power of the forests is great ; 

 where they are unfavourable reproduction proceeds only at 

 a slow rate. During the long continued struggle between 

 human action and the effort of self-preservation on the part 

 of the forests, the latter succumbed wherever the climatic 

 conditions were unfavourable ; hence what remained of 

 forests, when the Indian Forest Department was started, was 

 situated in localities with a heavy rainfall, or where a scanty 

 population had carried on a feeble warfare against the 

 woodlands. 



Again, the nature of the rainfall governs the character of 

 the forests. Where the monsoon rains are heavy the country 

 is generally covered with evergreen forests ; where the rain- 

 fall is less copious the forests are deciduous ; under a still 

 smaller rainfall they become sparse and dry, and finally 

 the country ends in desert. Thus, the evergreen forests are 

 found chiefly along the west coast of the Peninsula, in the 

 coast districts of Burma and Chittagong and along the foot 

 and lower slopes of the eastern Himalayas. The deciduous 

 forests occupy the greater part of the Peninsula and of 

 Burma away from the coast; they are the home of tlie teak, 



