60 HAPPY INDIA 



with other fuel if the cowdung was used as manure. 

 Therefore we may take it that about 34,000,000 

 tons of coal are required in addition to the present 

 output of coal to supply the needs of the country, 

 or, on the assumption that one ton of coal is equal 

 to two tons of wood, 68,000,000 tons of wood per 

 annum are required to supply the needs of the 

 country in addition to the present supply. 



It must, however, be borne in mind that India 

 is not the only country in the world which relies 

 on wood as its chief fuel, especially in the country 

 districts. If one travels in France and Germany, 

 Austria, Switzerland, and the Tyrol, one sees every- 

 where plantations of trees or large forests, as the 

 case may be, from which the people of every town 

 and village can get supplies of wood. The fuel 

 question has been settled there by the Governments 

 of those countries, which took care that the country 

 was not entirely disforested, or where it had been 

 disforested that it should be re-afforested, so that 

 there should be sufficient wood in every district. 

 But in India, with its larger districts, distances tend 

 to be much greater than in France and Germany. 

 Still, if one looks through the list of the forests in the 

 various provinces of India, one finds that there are 

 very few districts where there is not some forest 

 land, and by that I mean forest land which is main- 

 tained by the Government as forest land, because 

 there are enormous areas of so-called forest land 

 which are not maintained by the Government, and 

 upon which reliance cannot be placed. 



