HAPPY INDIA 15 



years none at all in some districts, whereas at Banga- 

 lore in South-West India there is as much as 

 129 inches of rain in one year. In every part of 

 India there is sufficient sunshine for raising the 

 crops, in some cases for raising three crops in one 

 year, and providing there is sufficient rain and the 

 soil is fertile two crops can always be raised if the 

 cultivator so desires. 



The rain comes with the monsoons, and if the 

 monsoons never failed, India would be a country 

 where, so far as nature is concerned, life should 

 be very easy. It is not necessary there to spend 

 much labour in making clothes nor in building warm 

 houses ; it is only necessary to raise a little food to 

 supply all one's animal needs. 



India is a country which probably has been covered 

 to a great extent with forests. Only a compara- 

 tively small area of forest land now remains because 

 the trees have been cut down, partly to clear the 

 land for agriculture and partly for use as timber 

 and for firewood, for charcoal making, for iron 

 smelting. Fires, either intentional or careless, have 

 destroyed a great deal of forest. 



India shares with other parts of Southern Asia 

 and with Africa an astonishing variety of natural 

 life. Elephants run wild, from 8 to u feet high, 

 and rhinosceros; there are huge wild bulls 6 feet 

 high at the shoulder, ferocious tigers and dangerous 

 leopards, a great variety of harmless and of poisonous 

 snakes, many kinds of deer and beautiful birds, 

 also some disagreeable insects like mosquitoes which 



