CHAPTER VI 



Mercator's projection misleading for landsmen Enormous area of 

 India Forest area, possibility of forest supplies of fuel 

 Enormous profit resulting Railway and motor lorry con- 

 veyance Government has no capital, must borrow to make 

 roads and railways necessary for full use of forests Coal 

 supplies possible Weight of cowdung burnt and of wood or 

 coal required as substitute Growth of timber in plantations 

 Enormous profits from resulting increase of crops Reaffores- 

 tation Etawah district of United Provinces Some statistics 

 of forests Table I. 



ANY person reading that the Indian cultivators 

 were forced to burn cowdung for fuel because there 

 was no wood or other combustible at hand would 

 imagine that India was short of timber and short 

 of coal. That, however, would be a very great 

 mistake. India has abundance of timber and abun- 

 dance of coal. It is only because of the extreme 

 poverty of the cultivators and the indifference of 

 the Government that there is any shortage of fuel, 

 either wood or coal, in the huts of the people. In 

 considering India we have constantly to bear in 

 mind the enormous area of the country, and we 

 are continually misled by the horrible maps which 

 are so popular on Mercator's projection. Looking 

 at one of those maps, one imagines India to be a 

 small country, and Siberia to be an enormous 



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