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AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY OF DECCAN GRASSLAND
By W. Burns, D.Sc, and G. M. Chakradev, B.A.
Introduction.
Previous work on the improvement of grazing lands made it clear that an intense ecological study of these lands is desirable. The present paper is a short account of the first season of such a study.
We have been able to lease for five years a piece of the worst Deccan grazing land near Poona, (See plate). This plot measures seven acres. Its surface is very uneven. On two sides it is raised into small hills, through which the rock shows. A central part is traversed by a nullah and has a piece of deeper soil in it. The whole area has been subjected to grazing and trampling by cattle from time immemorial, and it is usually accidentally burned every hot weather. It was so burned just before we took it over, and hence we were provided with a partially denuded area.
On the hilly portions the soil has been washed to such an extent that the existing plants are growing in murum, the partially disintegrated trap rock which lies about in fragments large and small. The lower areas have much more soil. Analyses of the soil taken at three different points are given in Appendix A. The low content of humus in the poorer samples is worth notice.
The area is about 1,800 ft. above sea level. The annual rainfall averages 27 inches, falling between June and October, both months included. During the rest of the year the climate is moderate as Indian conditions go, except for the intensely drying hot wind that blows from the west in the three months preceding the monsoon.
Operations on the Area.
The main thing in our research was to keep off cattle, prevent burning, and stop grass-cutting for such time as would enable us to study the possibilities of the vegetation if left to itself. A strong barbed wire fence was therefore erected, and a line of Agave sisalana planted inside it. To minimise erosion due to rain, small ridges of six to twelve inchos high wero erected along the contours at about each three-foot rise, and these ridges were reinforced by the loose stones of the area. The existing nullahs were blocked at various places to prevent the water rushing through them and
