A MIGHTY TASK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 673, 27 October 1933, Page 7

A MIGHTY TASK

INDIAN IRRIGATION ACHIEVEMIENT OF BRITAIN TOWiARD ENDING DROUGHTS. EXTENSIVE ARTERIES Irrigation works cons'fcructed by. British authorities in India will soon supply 40,000,000 acres with water hnd virtually end drought and famine, Sir Samiuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India, told, the British Parliament in the recent annnal Indian staltement, saysi the Ghristian Science M/onitor. Indda's Catering arteries are far more -extensive than those of the whole of the rest of the world together, according to information received in Simla, with just under 70,000,000 acres cropped under irrigation. The rainfall of the whole of India at the present timie averages 45 inches a year. This, according; to official records, never varies up or down by more thani seven inches. But about the catchment areas of the grealt hydro-electric works within 60 miles in a direct line ffiom Bombay, the hills receive as much as 600 inches in the few months of the summer monsoon rains. There are similar phenomenal anama! falls in other parts. Aiid'in some areas no rain falls at all. 1 iHende, India is a land of rich gardens and sterile wastes, but, parts new deserlb are known to have been.wonderfully f ertile whe.ni the cities of 5000 years ago, necently excava.ted by; the arehaeologdcal department, were. flourishing. It is said that the forests which then richly carpeted the plains of northern India were destroyed by fire 'by the Aryan invaders somiei 2000 or 3000 years ago. iRelics found in/ different parts of India show that irrigation was crudely practised in ancient times, but little was anywhere done in the way of constructing large irrigation works, in the modern sensie of the terrn, before the advent of British rule. The British developed enthusiasm for thus enriching the land and their enthusiasm was epitomised during the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon, more than 30 ysars aigo. Lord Curzon, in 1901, appodnted a comanission to inquire into the whole problem and the network of schemes which made up tlie magnificent total mentioned by Sir Samuel Hoare is in the main the result of carrying out the fundamentals which it enunciated. During 1930-31, the latest year for which figures are available, the area irrigated from, all classes of Government works in British India was 31,096,876 acres. To this musffc be ■added some millions of acres more in the Indian States. Quarter of India. These States are governed by their own princely rulers. They corer roughly a quarter of the total land area .and contain about one-third of the total population. But their modern irrigation equipments are the work of British engineers and are, in tfact, mostly sections of schemes af■fecting both British India and the -States. The greatest area under irrigation in any province lies in the Punjab, the "Land of the Five Rivers," in the north. Before the arrival of irrigation, the land was largely desert; and through the desert flowed huge river channels, down which annually sweep flood waters from the melting snows in the mighlty Himlalayas a'bove them. The last figures show the imigation area in that province to have risen to 11,690,000 acres as well as 1,490,000 acres lying' in Indian States in the same region. The total cultivated area' of the province is approximately 31,750,000 acres compared with the total arable area of England which is about 10,000,000 acres. There are in the Punjab more' than 20,000 miles of main eanals and there is now in prospect the construetion of what will ibe known as the Bhakra dam, 395 feet hig'h, across a Hdmalayan gorge, which' will store up 120,000,000,000 cubic feet of water from the rains and melting snows teach year, and save it for one of the greatest irrigation schemes ever coneeived. 'The Punjab Himlalayas are reportsd to have water resources equivalent to 2,500,000 horse-power. The first hydro-electric scheme to take advantage of it is now under construetion, and part of at is already in o-pera-tion. Between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 acres of comparatively high waterless land are expieeted eventually to 'be brought under irrigation by pumpdng.