Wild Animals in India.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 870, 2 November 1888, Page 10

Wild Animals in India.

A writer on ‘The Game and Game-Laws of India,’ in tho current number of the Quarterly Review, says that the recent enactment of a law for the protection of wild birds and game in India marks a notable era in the progress of Western thought and civilisation in that couutry.

THE PROTECTION OP WILD ELEPHANTS. In Lord Dufferin’s new Game Law a power has been taken to enable tbe local Governments to extend the provisions of the Act to any animals of game other than. birds. .Ibis may, perhaps, be looked on with suspicion by some people. But there are several kinds of game animals, such as nilghal and antelopos, which really need protection. Nor is this the first effort of Government in this direction. ‘Nearly ten years ago the Viceroy found himself obliged to legislate to prohibit the wanton destruction of, wild elephants, and to ‘assert the Government rights of ownership in all that might be captured, whbther by its own special officers or by licensed hunters. It seemed as if the elephants of India were about to become an extinet species. The supply of newly caught wild elephants was decreasing from year to year. The mortality among the tame elephants employed for military purposes had largely increased, especially during tho protracted campaigns of the Mutiny of 1857. The elephant, though of huge strength, is of delicate constitution, and requires to bo treated with much more care than it usually receives when engaged on military duties. The market value of elephants showed how seriously the supply was becoming exhausted. Their price more than doubled itself for all young and serviceable animals. Then the Government interposed, and as tame elephants do not breed in captivity, the law was passed to protect the wild elephants from being hunted for the sake of their ivory; and to require the professional huDters of elephants to take out a license, under which the Government would have the first choice of all newly captured elephants for the wants of the Commissariat and for other military purposes.’ THE EXTERMINATION OF BEASTS OF PREY. It has, the writer remarks, been probably too much the habit of English sportsmen in India to deplore the general decrease of the wild animals which they used to .hunt, • Wherever there has been a marked diminution or disappearance of the beasts of prey, it is usually duo to one of three causes. The first and principal cause has been the gradual increase of cultivation throughout the country. The second cause is referable to the policy adopted by the Government of India, of giving pecuniary rewards for the extermination of wild animals and poisonous snakes ; and the third cause is to be found in the assiduous endeavours of English sportsmen, during the last century, to kill as many wild beasts as they could find time and opportunity to destroy, With regard to the first cause, it is a simple faot that the clearance of the forest and the spread of cultivation have been fatal, not only to the larger beasts of prey, but also to the innocent herds of deer and antelopes. The policy which has been pursued by the English Government, in attempting to exterminate wild beasts, leaves very little reason to fear that it will permit its new Game Law to be abused, so as to encourage the growth of any noxious animals. On the contrary, if, according to the old fable of A33op, a counoil of wild beasts could now be held, it would be for the animals to complain that the English Government had encroached on their rights and privileges in a manner utterly unknown to the original rulers of India. It has been made a systematic business to encourage the destruction of all wild beasts. A table of rewards, setting a value on the head: of each tiger and other dangerous animal, hangs in every public office and maiketplace.’ DESTRUCTION OF HUMXN LIFE BY WILD

ANIMALS. In British India during the year 1886 the Government paid 189,006 rupees in rewards for the destruction of wild animals and poisonous snakes collectively. ‘The total number of human beings reported as killed by wild animals in 18S6was 2,707, as follows: —Killed by wild elephants 57, by tigers 928, by leopards 194, by bears 113, by wolves 222, by hysenas 24, by other animals 1,169. lhe account per contra, showing the number of wild animals destroyed, and the amount of rewards paid for their destruction, stands as follows Wild elephants 7,300 rupees ; tigers 1,464, 48,000 rupees ; leopards 4,051, 70,632 rupees ; hears 1,668, 7,783 rupees ; wolves 6,725, 24.13 S rupees ; hyfnas 1,650, 6 552 rupees; other animals b,852, b, Odd rupees: total, 22,417 animals, 163,438 rupees. Thus it will be seen that, on the whole, the wild beasts had much the worst of the conflict. As between tigers and men unfortunately the numbers were more nearly equal,’ THE JACKAL’S SHARE OF BLOOD. It will have been observed that 1,169 of the deaths are attributed to ‘other unspecified animals,’ whilst 6,852 animals coming under this indefinite heading were killed. ‘From some of the details which have been given, particularly in Bengal, it appears that jackals take the highest place in this class ; and it is probable that many more young children are earned oti by jackals than tho returns show. A woman, whose hut is on the outskirtj of a village surrounded by trees and low brushwood, may go over to a neighbour’s house to borrow a little rice or some fire-wood. Her absence maybe but for a minute; but when she returns, the little child that she left playing at her door has disappeared. No cry was heard, for the jackal seized the child by the back of the neok, and death was instantaneous, The men of the village are away at

their daily work in the fields ; and before the afflicted woman can summon her neighbours to the rescue, every morsel of her missing child has been devoured by the jackal and its hungry whelps.’ FEABFUL MORTALITY FROM SNAKE-BITES. . The number of persons' killed by snakes in India is appalling. The returns for 18S6 show that 22,134'human beings perished from snake-bite. ‘On the other hand, the number of cattle killed by snakes is returned at 2,514. The serpent is therefore speoially the mortal enemy of man in India; and death from the bite of a snake comes to be regarded as an ordinary incident in human life. On the opposite side of the account, it is stated that 417,596 snakes were destroyed, and that 25,360 rupees were paid by. Government as.rewards for their destruction. It certainly becomes rather difficult to say whether it is best to continue to give rewards for killing snakes or to revert to Lord Canning’s policy of masterly non-interferenco, leaving tho snakes undisturbed in their natural haunts. It seems very possible that; where the snakes are systematically hunted and caught, soma of their pursuers are fatallv bitten ; and, on the other hand, it has been officially suggested that when rewards are freely given for killing snakes, some of the ingenious natives deliberately breed them, and live upon the profits derived from this new kind of stock. The mortality from snake-bite in Bengal is also much larger among women than among men. They are usually bitten in the early morning, when they go out unseen before daylight, either to fetch wood from the faggot-stack or for some other domestic purpose. During the rainy season, when nearly all the rice fields are under water, the snakes take refuge on the higher plots of ground on which the villages are built, and they hide themselves, in the little wood-stacks and granaries in the courtyards of the houses ; whilst, notunfrequently, they take up their abode in tbe house itself, where they are allowed to dwell with impunity, and are sometimes fed with milk ; until, on some unlucky day, the wife treads accidently on the snake in the dark, and it turns upon her and bites her. From the bite of a full-grown cobra death ensues in a very few minutes ; and the natives have no such remedies at hand as English science might use, but they put a vain faith in tbe fanciful charms and incantations recommended by their priests.'