According to a report of the Geological Survey of India
1. Iron smelting was widespread in India one time and there was hardly a district away from the Great alluvial tracts of the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra in which slag heaps are not found
2. For the primitive iron smelter finds no difficulty in obtaining sufficient supplies of ore from deposits that no European iron master would regard as worth his serious consideration
3. This report meant that iron smelting was busy before the introduction of forest laws introduced by British