( 77A ) 



From the trees now growing there it was possible to see what tho 

 level of the tank had been. From want of attention the bandh had 

 been breached with the result that the bed of the ravine had scoured 

 out to a depth of fully 20', while the head of the ravine was each 

 year creeping farther back into the fields. From enquiries and 

 from observations Mr. Roche and I are agreed that the average 

 annual encroachment of those ravines is about 15'. 



5. In this connection some apparently grotesque statistics are 

 not without interest as helping to illustrate the enormous wastage 

 of good soil that is resulting from the erosion in ravine tracts. In 

 the Etawah district there is good evidence that 400 years ago the 

 land, now intersected by innumerable ravines was level ground. 

 A rough calculation shows that, at a minimum estimate, during 

 this period about 150",000,000 cubic feet of earth have been washed 

 away. This means that for every second of the 400 years 11 cubic 

 feet have been washed out of the Etawah district in canal phrase- 

 ology 11 cusecs. Although, as I have mentioned, the above 

 is a minimum estimate, the result will appear to be sufficiently 

 appalling if the figure is put at 5' cuseos, if it is realized that 

 there has been a constant outflow of earth in a stream 24' wide and 

 2' deep flowing at the rate of one mile in three hours, which is 

 about the rate of an ordinary canal distributary, for the last 400 

 years. Another way of illustrating the loss may be found in dividing 

 the total area of the ravine tracts in each district by the period 

 of 400 years. Thus it will be found that in the Etawah district 

 there has been a loss of 250 acres per annum, while in the Bah 

 tahsil about 160 acres appears to have disappeared each year. If 

 we put this figure at only 100 acres per annum the loss would 

 seem to be sufficiently serious. 



6. As being useful for the purpose of estimating the number 

 of labourers for whom work could be found in times of famine as well 

 as for the purpose of estimating the cost of reclaiming ravines, I sug- 

 gested to Mr. Roche that we should lay out the sites for all bandhs 

 on a known area. Mr. Roche agreed that the map attached to this 

 report shows the ravine system which we worked over in the 

 village of Chitra. The total catchment area of this ravine system is 

 320 acres, and in these ravines we laid out 42 bandhs. The total 

 area of ravine tract which would be reclaimed, that is excluding all 

 present cultivation, would be 250 acres. 



By taking measurements of all the sites we have calculated 

 that the total amount of earthwork in these 42 bandhs would be 

 420,000 cubic feet. The bandhs vary greatly in size, one bandh 

 being as much as 50,000 cubic feet. Using ordinary labour the cost 

 would be about Rs, 1,260, using famine labour the cost would be 



