798 On the Influence of Forests on Climate. [Aug. 



The present denuded state of the N. W. Provinces has, I believe, 

 lately attracted the attention of government, and therefore it may not 

 be amiss to note down here the plans that have suggested themselves 

 for restoring to the soil what nature designed for its protection and 

 benefit. 



In the first place it appears necessary that the government should 

 set the good example to its subjects by cutting canals, planting trees 

 and digging wells at every ten or twelve miles along the principal 

 thoroughfares of these provinces ; and moreover it should adopt mea- 

 sures for their protection, and prevent the groves from being destroyed 

 for the purposes of feeding camels and elephants, as well as for sup- 

 plying fuel for Military Stations. 



The extensive dawk (Butea frondosa) jungle, situated between Phug- 

 wara and Khanoora, in the Jullundhur Doab, is fast disappearing, and 

 in a very few years no traces of it will be left. The same may be said 

 of the pine forests in our Himalayan Provinces. 



On each occasion that I have marched through the above mentioned 

 Doab, I have been sorely grieved to mark how the venerable peepul 

 and banyan trees planted for the purpose of affording shade to the 

 weary traveller, have been ruthlessly mutilated in order to feed the 

 camels and elephants belonging to Europeans and the government* 

 That picturesque Doab will soon become as dreary and as naked as any 

 of the Upper Provinces, if some protecting hand is not immediately 

 stretched out to prevent its spoliation. In the next place, the govern- 

 ment should foster and encourage, or rather turn to some useful pur- 

 pose the religious vanity of the Hindus, by granting them certain por- 

 tions of rent-free land in perpetuity whereon to plant groves and dig 

 wells for the benefit of their souls, and to the greater advantage of 

 travellers. 



" To live in the grateful recollections of their countrymen for bene- 

 fits conferred upon them in great works of ornament and utility, is the 

 study of every Hindu of rank and property. Such works tend in his 

 opinion, not only to spread and perpetuate his name in this world, but 

 through the good wishes and prayers of those who are benefitted by 

 them, to secure the favour of the deity in the next. 



" According to their notions every drop of rain water or dew that 

 falls to the ground from the green leaf of a fruit tree, planted by them 



