Planting Trees in India.

Reforestation is desperately needed in India. Three-fourths of the country's ground surface is experiencing desertification, and primitive forests are being destroyed. Reforestation would help moderate temperatures, increase ground water levels, improve soil fertility, and alleviate a wood shortage. In the past, people from the United States, such as Samuel Stokes, have helped India with tree planting projects, and this document claims that further assistance is currently needed. A rural program, entitled "A People's Forestry Movement in India," has been established to build and staff a network of tree nurseries, tree clubs, and a society of nurserymen. Unless halted, worldwide destruction of tropical rain forests by the year 2000 may be the greatest ecological disaster that will ever occur; because, while only encompassing seven percent of the earth's land surface, rain forests contain one-half of the world's animal and plant species. (JHP)