Taming the Tarai: Pushing Back the Jungle in Northern India, 1958-1960

From 1958-1960, the Bennett family lived on the 16,000-acre Tarai State Farm in northern India, a swampy flatland on the lower slopes of the Himalayan foothills. As part of the “Green Revolution,” the U.S. Department of State had hired Francis Bennett as an agricultural engineer to move to the Farm and help it prepare for the founding the first land-grant university in India. Within a month of living on the Tarai State Farm, however, it was clear there was a problem. Workers in the field were coming in close contact with an active tiger population roaming throughout the Farm. Tigers were attacking cattle and people, making it dangerous for the over 3,000 employees and their families living and working there. Before Indian independence, the area had been part of a designated hunting area within the government forest division. Tigers that had left the area when the jungle was bulldozed down to make way for cropland were returning under cover of the tall kans grass that flourished throughout the Farm. This book is a true and sincere documentary based on personal experiences concerning two years of working on the Farm to improve agricultural mechanization, turn back the kans-grass jungle, and help make the Farm safe and ready to become what is now the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology., ISBN13:9781478793779 ISBN10:1478793775 Material Type:paperback