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 Chapter II. 



-THE EFFECT OF DISFORESTMENT 



Before proceeding further with the progress of the policy of 

 afforestation referred to above it is necessary roughly to describe 

 the effect of unregulated forest clearances in different parts of the 

 world and especially in these provinces. 



We know that the sands of the Sahara and Arabia now cover 

 what was once a fertile land, and that many countries such as 

 Greece, Tripoli, and Palestine are now only able to support a 

 scanty population. Ancient historians speak of the equable climate 

 of Greece, then densely- wooded, and of the perpetual spring of 

 Babylon. Babylonian tablets of great antiquity refer to the 

 attempts to reclaim the country thrown out of cultivation by the 

 sinking of the spring level and erosion, but these efforts were only 

 of temporary benefit. The floods from the mountains increased 

 year by year, the beds of the rivers were scoured out, irrigation 

 became impossible, and the countries gradually developed into their 

 present desert condition. 



Many interesting examples of the effect of disforestment can 

 be found in almost every country. The United States of America 

 and South Africa have suddenly awakened to this danger and the 

 scientific papers are full of glaring instances of erosion, soil dete- 

 rioration, and exhaustion. In many countries of the old world the 

 disastrous effect of disforestment has been appreciated and laws 

 have from time to time been enacted to prevent the destruction of 

 forests, the most interesting being the old French law of 1669. To 

 come closer home, we have the case of the Hoshiarpur chos in the 

 Punjab where, as a result of the destruction by unrestricted grazing 

 and the cutting down of the woodland growth on the Siwalik hills, 

 the river beds have become choked with stones and sand. These 

 dry chos are constantly widening their beds at the expense of culti- 

 vated fields. After heavy rain they become raging torrents carry- 

 ing destruction far and wide, but after a few hours the flood water 

 passes on and the cho resumes its normal waterless state. Hence, 

 instead of having perennial streams watering a fertile land, the 

 country is intersected with these wastes of stones and sand 

 producing nothing of any value to man or beast. In 1910 many 

 acres of cultivation were carried away by the sudden flooding of 

 the Kosi and Ramganga rivers : similar instances could be given 

 in every sub-montane district. 



