Pristine Jainism

Author(s): S M Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 54

Kalparkșas (Forests) in Jainism : (51) till trees are tall and big when agriculture will not be possible but by this time trees will start yielding various products. The forests once created are everlasting if properly managed by limiting the harvesting of their products within productivity limits. There is no recurring expenditure as in agriculture on tilling, sowing, watering, and manuring etc crop after crop. It modern high-tech agriculture the input costs are rising every year and it is not profitable at all and is being sustained on enormous subsidies all over the world. The average yield of edible seeds only (excluding fruits, flowers etc) from poly-culture forest will be 10 tonnes per hectare per year without any recurring cost.
In forest there is no need of tilling as the various burrowers and rats etc which are considered harmful in agriculture are useful as they do the work of tilling by turning the soil. Birds, animals including humans, insects etc are useful in dispersal of seeds which are also carried far and wide by water and wind also. Forests are self-fertilising, self-watering and do not need any poisonous pesticides as there is natural control of pests and predators in mixed poly-culture forests. There is no need of polluting dams, canals etc. Every tree is a little dam itself. It has been experimentally proved that in well-forested land mass there is more than 90% infiltration and only 10% run off of rainwater. There will be no floods during rains and rivers and wells etc will have perennial water supply from underground water reservoirs. Soil erosion will be stopped. There will be no pollution of any sort and there will be no famines as yield of edible seeds, fruits etc will not be much affected by drought, excess rains and other vagaries of nature. Climate will be ameliorated. Rainfall will be regular. The fury of Cyclones etc will also be subdued. There will be no problem of waste disposal, which is becoming insurmountable in the present, consumerist predatory agriculture, industry based model. There is no dirt and squalor in good forests as the various creatures and micro-organisms quickly convert all types of biological waste into useful products. In a study of wolves it was found that up and down swings in their population was directly proportionate to the