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CHAPTER XVII

AFFORESTATION WORK IN INDIA

IRRIGATED AND NON-IRRIGATED PLANTATIONS IN THE PUNJAB AND UNITED Provinces

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HE work in connection with the formation of plantations in India such as the Nilambur and Ootacamund plantations in Madras, the teak plantations in Burma and elsewhere, and the Changa Manga irrigated plantation in the Punjab, which form the classic examples of this branch of the activities of the Department in the past, has been alluded to in previous chapters. In two Provinces of India, the Punjab and the United Provinces, afforestation schemes have in recent years acquired a far greater significance in the economy of the sister Provinces as a whole.

It is proposed in the present chapter to review the remarkable development which has taken place, and the important part which the afforestation work is likely to have in the development of large tracts of country. A knowledge of the lines upon which the schemes are being undertaken should not only prove of service to other parts of India, but equally to other portions of the Empire where great canalization and colonization schemes are in progress, or where areas of barren and sun-scorched land may be made productive through afforestation.

THE IRRIGATED PLANTATIONS OF THE PUNJAB

Perhaps the first instance in modern times of a plantation of any size being formed with the aid of artificial irrigation is furnished by the Changa Manga Plantation which was started, as has been shown (p. 131), in 1866. The raising of trees by means of irrigation (i.e. canal water) had a much more ancient origin, and was probably a natural sequence to the earliest

construction of a canal system. That the first English rulers realized the advantages to be attained from, and the necessity of establishing, tree-growth in the plains of the Punjab is apparent from a Report written by the then Lieutenant-Colonel Napier soon after the annexation. This Report had reference to the Bari Doab Canal project of 1850, an extract from which has been already quoted on pp. 286, 287, in Volume II. Plantations were commenced on the canal. The question of the provision of fuel for the population, and a decade later for the steamers of the Indus flotilla, and still later for the new projected railways, gave to this matter an increasing importance; although on the treatment of the rakh lands the Punjab Government did not see eye to eye with the forestry advisers, Brandis and Cleghorn (I, p. 492). Dr. Stewart, the first Conservator of Forests in the Punjab, submitted a Report on the supply of fuel for the Punjab Railway and the Indus steamers in 1864. He summarized the sources of supply as: (1) the outer ranges of the Himalaya, where a more or less permanent supply was available; (2) Canal Plantations, to be created or further developed by Canal Officers, the work having been already commenced on the Bari Doab Canal; (3) Railway plantations, to be formed as near fuelling stations as possible. The Secretary of State subsequently refused to allow the Railways to form their own plantations (II, p. 289); (4) The Rakhs, arid scrub forests. It was estimated that the rakh areas adjacent to the railway line would be only capable of supplying the river steamers and Punjab for three years." ." The lines upon which Stewart and his successors dealt with the problem have been previously discussed. It has been necessary to recapitulate the earlier stages of this fuel problem in order that the significance of its later development may be appreciated. If the fuel requirements of the population, and the timber demands of the Public Works and others, chiefly provided from the hill forests be omitted, the three crucial factors dominating the position were the canals, railways and the Indus flotilla. The raison d'être of canal construction was to bring under cultivation, by means of irrigation, the rakh areas, a considerable proportion of which, though covered with a poor scrub forest, would become valuable arable land the moment water could be brought to them. Both the steamers and railways consumed fuel. It became obvious that in process of time the demands of the former would decrease whilst the latter would increase, although the rate of increase of the railway require

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ments was far from being realized, as the old Reports, which speak of one daily up and down train, and later three, forming the basis of estimation of the fuel supplies, readily display. That the Forest Department contemplated the growing of trees by the Canal Department as part of the duties of the Canal Officers was due to the fact that in these early days the former was chiefly preoccupied with the forests in the hills, as has been already described (II, Chap. VII). The increasing demands for fuel by the extending railway resulted in a great impulse being given to plantation work, and the rakh dispute (I, p. 495) was settled by the Government of India deciding in 1869-70 that all rakhs available for the supply of fuel should be made over to the Department. A new Plantation Division was formed and plantation work was concentrated (p. 131 ante). The Punjab had taken the first step in the path of future progress in this respect, and as the years went by the Changa Manga plantation had a world-wide notoriety amongst foresters. A considerable area of the rakhs was managed by the Department as fuel and fodder reserves, and the railway demands for fuel for their locomotives were fully met until, in 1905, wood fuel was finally replaced by coal, and an economic step, which had seemed unrealizable to the Engineers in 1865 (II, p. 285), became a reality. So far as the Forest Department was concerned the railways and steamers thus disappeared as factors of importance in relation to fuel supplies. The third factor, the canals, remained, coupled with the greatly increased demands of the population for fuel and timber. In the administration of the plains of the Punjab the Canal, in other words the Irrigation Department, had grown rapidly in importance, as in so arid a country it was certain to do. With the change in the type of fuel used by the railways the reason for maintaining a large area of rakh scrub forest disappeared. During the past twenty years, with the wonderful development of the irrigation works of the Province, an ever-increasing area of such land has been given up by the Forest Department and placed under cultivation. In other words, the colonization of the Punjab has made rapid progress. It is only a question of a few years before all the rakh areas taken over by the Forest Department in 1869 will have been handed back to the Civil Department to come under irrigated arable crops. During his visit to the Punjab in April (1925) the author was astonished by the great areas of golden crops he passed through, occupying lands which formerly he had known as arid scrub. The rate

at which these areas of "unclassed" rakh forest have been dwindling is shown from the following figures:

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The great decrease of rakh forest lands under the Department from over 6 lakhs of acres in 1894-5 to a little over 96,000 acres in 1924-5 furnishes evidence of the effect canal construction has had on the areas in the plains under the Department. The policy which was being followed was economically sound, since to retain any area under forest, whether scrub or timber, which can be made to produce food is, under most conditions, wrong. Also the success of irrigation schemes of any magnitude depends upon being able to place a considerable tract under crops. The mere fact of bringing extensive treeless areas under crops, which enables the settlement of a large and new population on the terrain, necessitates in its turn adequate provision being made for its requirements in fuel, timber and other produce of the forests. The Forest Authority in the Province realizes that as the new colonization progresses an increase is to be anticipated in this connection. Further, that cotton ginneries and mills are likely to arise with little way-side stations which rapidly become centres of trade, all of which will entail larger demands for forest produce. Further, that the plantations from which these requirements can be supplied cost little or nothing to Government to create, even during the process of formation, as will be shown later.

In order to appreciate the position of the Forest Department in this matter vis-à-vis the Irrigation Department, it will be necessary to review briefly the aims and policy of the latter Department, which is transforming extensive areas of the arid barren plains of the Punjab into wonderfully rich cropproducing lands. It would be difficult to find a finer instance of successful and far-sighted British statesmanship and administration than the transformation scene which has taken

place in the Province during the present century. A brief description of the canal policy will be attempted.

Omitting one or two of the earlier canal schemes such as the Sidhnai and others, the first of the large and more modern canals was the Lower Chenab. First proposed in 1875 the cost appeared excessive. A smaller scheme, framed in 1882, failed. Major Jacob was placed in charge of the 1889 project and soon suggested a larger project, which received sanction in 1892. The tract for which the canal was proposed is described "as one of extreme desolation. Water lay for the most part from 80 feet to 120 feet below the surface of the soil, while the rainfall was scanty and uncertain. With the exception of snakes and lizards the country was extraordinarily devoid of animal life. The vegetation consisted of dusty shrubs and grazing was almost absent. The only inhabitants of the country were the indigenous nomads, a spare and hardy race who eked out a precarious existence by means of their camels and goats, being almost independent of any form of diet other than milk. Such was the country in which the Engineers were destined to live and labour for many years, and which the Lower Chenab Canal has converted from a wilderness into a garden." This description equally applies to many other areas which have been, or are to be, reclaimed by canals. The immediate success of the earlier colonists on the Lower Chenab with their crops gave rise to a great demand for the land. A railway for the carriage of the produce was commenced in 1895, roads came rapidly into being and towns and factories began to spring up in the former desert. In ten years the population of the tract had risen from 8000 to 800,000. Lyallpur, the capital of the colony, is now an important city with an enormous export trade. In 1919-20 the value of the crops grown on the land irrigated by the Lower Chenab Canal was no less than Rs.16 crores or nearly five times the capital cost of the work. Thirty years earlier this land was practically valueless. The Lower Jhelum Canal was commenced in 1888, but was not opened till 1901 and completed in 1908. All previous irrigation works were, however, outdistanced by the great Triple Canals project which is the largest irrigation work executed in India to date. Its main object was the irrigation of a tract of country known as the Lower Bari Doab, situated between the Ravi and Sutlej Rivers. Briefly, by means of the scheme framed, the surplus water of the Jhelum River is transferred into the Lower Bari Doab. The professional skill displayed in

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