THE FORESTS OF INDIA

CHAPTER I

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY: ITS CLIMATE AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES

S a preliminary to a consideration of the history of the Forests of India a brief summary of the geographical features of the country is necessary in order that the reasons for the great variations in the types of forest growth met with in different parts may be understood.

The shape of the Indian continent is usually considered to be triangular, with the Himalaya as the northern base and the sea on the other sides. Strictly speaking, however, “rhomboidal" more clearly defines the shape, a fact which was appreciated in ancient times by the great Greek geographer Strabo. The length of the north-eastern side of the rhomboid, from the head of the Bay of Bengal to the extreme north-west of Kashmir along the line of the Himalaya is about 1400 miles; from Kashmir to Karachi on the north-western side is about 1200 miles; Karachi to Cape Comorin running down the coast on the Arabian Sea on the south-west side of the rhomboid is 1750 miles; and from Cape Comorin up the east coast of Madras to the mouths of the Hoogly River is another 1300 miles, washed by the Bay of Bengal. Strabo's measurements were as follows: from the sources of the Indus to the mouth of the Ganges, 16,000 stadia; from the mouth of the Ganges to Cape Comorin, 16,000; from Cape Comorin to the mouth of the Indus, 19,000; from the mouth of the Indus to its source in the mountains, 13,000. If the stadium is taken as 115 of a mile, each of these measurements is only about

200 miles short of the actual length, which is a wonderful testimony to the accuracy of Greek research in ancient times.

The area comprised in this rhomboid omits Assam and Burma. An acute-angled triangle with a 300-mile base stretching up from the mouths of the Hoogly on the northeastern side of the rhomboid and its apex situated 550 miles to the north-east will include Assam; and an attenuated triangle stretching southward and eastward for 1250 miles (all by rail) with its apex within two degrees of Cape Comorin and its base on the south-eastern side of the Assam triangle will roughly include the province of Burma.

The area of India is nearly 1 million square miles. The following distances between some well-known points will give some idea of the size of the Continent. The distance from Bombay to Calcutta via Nagpur by railway is about 1200 miles. From Dehra Dun in the north, situated midway on the little plateau between the Himalaya and the Siwalik Range of hills, to Calcutta is 1000 miles; from Calcutta to Madras 1000 miles; and from Madras to Cape Comorin in the extreme southern extremity 500 miles. If we take a north and south line (as the crow flies) stretching from Kalka in the north, at the base of the Himalaya, from which the mountain railway ascends to Simla (about 70 miles), to Cape Comorin, and passing through Saugor and Hyderabad, the total length of the line is 1600 miles, the respective distances being, Kalka to Saugor 500 miles; Saugor to Hyderabad 450 miles; and Hyderabad to Cape Comorin 650 miles. From Umbala 40 miles to the south of Kalka, the distance by rail via Lahore to Attock in the extreme north-west is 430 miles.

It is the existence of the mighty mass of the Himalayan bulwark stretching across the north and blocking it off from Central Asia which has conserved to India its distinctive flora and fauna and has been a determining factor in the history of the country.

The following description of the physiography of India is from Holdich's India, The Regions of the World Series:

"To the north-east and north-west (the two northern sides of the rhomboid) are vast elevations of land surface from the foot of which the peninsula of India stretches away southwards in gradually ascending grades. To the north-east and north-west exist elevated regions of plateau and tableland buttressed by mountain systems which form the staircases

between the plains and the plateau. On the north-east the huge upheaval of Tibet rising to 16,000 feet above sea-level, shuts off the rest of Asia with an unpassable barrier of sterile and stony uplands bordered India-wards by a vast mountain region which comprises many complicated minor systems whose central peaks are the highest in the world. These are the Himalaya. From the western extremity of the central Tibetan upheaval, mountain ranges curving southwards determine the initial direction of the rivers of China, Siam, Burma and Assam, and round off the north-eastern borderland of India with a series of walls as impassable as the solid block of the Tibetan plateau. On the extreme north, abutting on the north-west of Kashmir, the Pamirs (well called the Roof of the World) flank the depression north of the Tibetan plateau westward, and mark the geographical centre from which spring the Kuen Lun, hedging in Tibet to the north; the Himalaya dividing Tibet from India; the Thian-shan, which are but the south-western links in the central orographical axis of Asia, which reaches north-east for 4600 miles to the Behring Straits, and the Hindu Kush, with its subsidiary ranges, forming the north-western barrier of India."

The importance of this north-western barrier will be alluded to in connection with the ancient history of India.

"To the south of the region of mountains is the region of depression which lies at its south-eastern foot, curving northward across the breadth of the peninsula from the Bay of Bengal (on the east) to the Arabian Sea (on the west), and including all the most fertile and densely populated districts of Hindustan. This is the great silt-formed land of India, the land of great rivers which flow through the Himalaya and the western mountains, bringing the soil of Tibet, of Afghanistan and Baluchistan to fertilise the land and nourish the swarming populations of Bengal, the United Provinces, the Punjab and Sind. In this area of depression (never rising more than a few hundred feet above sea-level and often only a few inches above) we must include Assam, the valley of the Brahmaputra. It may be noted here that all the three great river systems of India-the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra-derive a part of their water supply from sources which lie in the highlands beyond the Himalaya and the western mountains, and part from the countless valleys which lie hidden within the mountain folds.

To the south of the area of depression succeeds the region