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increasing the volume of the torrents and leaving the beds dry a 

 few hours after a storm. Irrigation works have been destroyed 

 by these sudden floods and they are a source of anxiety to the 

 engineer. A similar state of affairs can be found on almost every 

 hill tributary of the Jumna. The slopes close to Mussooree, for, 

 instance, were completely covered with dense oak forests and, even 

 within the memory of residents now living, they have been denuded 

 of their forest crop by the private owners and by the muafidars of 

 Tehri State. The resulting effect of disforestment has been so 

 rapid that the same muafidars actually submitted a petition asking 

 that their forests might be managed by the Forest department but 

 this petition was refused on political grounds. 



The accumulated effect of this flooding and scouring has 

 resulted in the bed of the Jumna at Etawah being lowered 60 feet 

 in the last five hundred years with a corresponding sinking of the 

 spring level. The cold weather level of the river in the Etawah 

 and Jalaun districts is often 180 to 200 feet below the general level 

 of the immediately surrounding country, and the well water levels 

 are sometimes as low as 200 feet. Tbe banks of the Jumna in the 

 Agra, Etawah, and Jalaun districts are now so completely drained 

 that they have become almost destitute of vegetation except for a 

 desert flora, and even this is disappearing. This dry belt is 

 increasing at the rate of 250 acres every year in the Etawah dis- 

 trict alone. The absence of protective vegetation on the banks 

 and the flow of water from the high plateau to the rivers has caused 

 a complicated net-work of ravines. These ravines often start 

 suddenly at the edge of cultivation with a drop of some 80 feet, 

 or they may be less severe; they take up a meandering course, 

 joining up with other systems, eventually falling into the river. 

 The actual area of similar lands in the province is some millions 

 of acres. The land at present is almost valueless to the owners 

 as it yields only grazing of the very poorest description. 



Cultivation beyond this desert belt is precarious even in years 

 of normal rainfall, and drinking water often becomes so rare as 

 to necessitate the migration of whole villages, and throughout the 

 expanse of the ravines there is no water to be found except in the 

 main rivers. A study of the soil will show that it is very fertile, 

 but it is too out up and arid for cultivation. The monsoon rains 

 only sink to the depth of a few inches and, below this, the soil is 

 quite dry till the spring level is struck. It would appear that 

 the present tree-growth is of very great age and has continued to 

 reproduce itself by coppice shoots. Natural reproduction invari- 

 ably dies down as soon as the rains cease. 



