MAN-EATER'S HUGE TOLL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 8 (Supplement)

MAN-EATER'S HUGE TOLL.

RAVAGES IN THE JUNGLE.

OVER 2000 KILLED IN INDIA AX.084.

DEATH ROLL BY SNAKE BITE,

The toll of life exacted from the human race every year by man-eaters of the jungle is appalling. And in this boasted age of civilisation it is amazing to think that so little has been done to preserve man from the ravages of the animal world.

It is true that Government bounties ■re paid as rewards for such efforts as are made to clear the forests of their terrors, but still lions, tigers, snakes and crocodiles continue their deadly work with staggering effect.

Reports show that no fewer than 2285 people were killed by wild animals in British India alone during 1027, while 19,060 died from snake-bite. In the native States, with their population of some 00 millions, for which no records are available, the number of victims must be enormous. In Nepal every year numbers of native railway workers perish through the attacks of tigers.

Of the 2285 deaths just reported tigers were responsible for 1033 victims; leopards, 218; wolves, 465; bears, 78; elephants, 56; hyenas, 12; crocodiles, 136; wild pig, 85; and jackals, 41. The worst depredations of tigers and leopards were committed in Madras, of wolves in the United Provinces, of bears in Bihar and Orissa, and of elephants in Assam.

The man-eater is the ever-present terror of the Hindu villager. Perhaps a village will go in peace for 10 or 15 years, forgetting the ravages of former years caused by one of these monsters. Possessed of a false sense of security, the men of the village will go on with the old occupations, taking no precautions against a possible incursion. Suddenly. they are aroused from their state of for-1 getfulness by the loss of some of their loved ones, snatched away in the peace of the night from the bosoms of their families. Tiger's Fifty Victims. Cases have been known where one of these man-eaters has devoured over 30 people within the short space of 48 hours. In one district a tiger terrorised IB villages for over three months, until a hunting party of 2000 armed men was organised to put an end to his deadly work. Even then they failed in accomplishing their purpose, and he killed upwards of 50 people before he met his death.

Crocodiles are another source of terror in India. One crocodile is reported to have devoured 30 people in less than two months. This, be it understood, occurred in two villages comprising not more than 250 people all told.

In order to destroy as many wild animals and snakes as possible the Government offers rewards to native sportsmen, and last year 139,453 rupees were paid for the shooting of 25,612 maneaters, including 1368 tigers, 4390 leopards, 2739 bears, and 2439 wolves. The total number of snakes killed was 57,116, and for their destruction 1241 rupees were paid as rewards.

But India is not the only country afflicted with the' man-eater. The Uganda man-eating lions are a growing menace to life. The Chief Games Warden reported recently that during a reign of terror which existed in the vicinity of Sanga, one lion alone was responsible for 84 deaths, and that another had more than 40 human "kills" to its credit before it was destroyed. Tainted Lions. When lions collectively take to mankilling, the taint in their blood is naturally passed on to their offspring, though the new generations may not necessarily display man-killing tendencies from birth. The taint, however, is lying dormant, awaiting an opportunity to display itself. In a single year the lions in Rhodesia are reported to have had 110 victims to their credit; those of West Portuguese Africa accounted for more than 200 people, including three European hunters. A well-known explorer calculates that in Independent Congo the mean annual tribute paid by the natives amounts to 600 lives, but that estimate is much too ■mall considering that figures are only available in cases known to the comparatively small number of officials who govern the country.

So terrorised were some districts of Central Africa that some time ago there was added to the Litany prayer against "battle, murder, and sudden death" the words "and wild beasts," which had become a very real danger.

China, thanks to her long history, has been able to rid herself of most dangerout wild animals; but in Korea a local species of tiger, perhaps the largest and fiercest in the whole family, annually kills 2000 peasants.

Siberia, again, is affected by the ravages of at least one wild animal, scientifically known as Tigris Onuriensis, which is remarkable for its great size, the beauty of its skin and, above all, its insatiable love for human flesh.

Exact figures as to its ravages are impossible to obtain; but official estimates have been made, one of which states that during four months the tigers in the Trans-Vaikal province » devoured 12 natives, 27 Russian subjects, including two officers and eight soldiers, and 132 Chinese immigrants, making a total of 171 victims for a territory which includes approximately one-fifth of the whole area inhabited by this redoubtable beast. Not for Centuries. Even these figures, however, fade into insignificance besides the total number of deaths attributable to wolves and bears in Siberia. These run into thousands. A report published some time ago by the Administrator of Water and Forests in that country stated that 5234 people (native peasants and convicts) succumbed in one year to the attacks of these beasts. The question naturally, arises as to how man is to be protected against the animal world. Sooner or later the end will come, but present indications show that it will be a matter of centuries. It took England four centuries to eliminate the wolf, and elsewhere progress has been no more rapid. In Cape Colony, the Transvaal and the rest of the Union where lions were still numerous during the latter half of the last century, they have been practically I exterminated; and the bears which formerly ravaged Japan, have been finally isolated in the north island of Yezo, in an uninhabitable region.