THE KA Til I A WA R LION. 9 



broiiiilit into the Gir from outside to graze and whicdi undoubtedly 

 paid a heavier toll to them than did the wild game. 



I have not paid a visit to the Gir since the last famine, but have 

 been told by others who have done so, that in the matter of game, it 

 is a verv different place to what it used to be "in the good old days." 

 Until towards the end of the famine by which time the Gir had been 

 jirettv well cleared of both wild game and cattle, the lions and i)an- 

 thers fared no worse than usual, but it was a very different state of 

 1 lungs for all the deer kind : not only did their natural food very 

 soon failed them but from the very commencement of the famine they 

 were mercilessly persecuted by the local Darbari police, forest guards, 

 etc., who were able to and did shoot down hundreds of animals over 

 the puddles of water left in the district, in spite of the orders of the 

 Darbar prohibiting their slaughter. In the depths of the Gir the 

 lower Darbari officials do pretty much as they like. An old sepoy 

 once lauohinglv said to me that he was accustomed to eat meat and 

 the Gir was the only place where he could get as much as he required. 

 This was when the game was supposed to be preserved ! 



Towards the end of the famine the lions as well as the panthers 

 began to find their food was runninor short, thev were therefore 

 forced to leave their usual haunts, and wander in search of it into the 

 surrounding districts. This brought them more into evidence, and 

 gave rise especially at the time of Lord Lamington's shoot which 

 terminated so disastrously, to the rumour that owing to the very 

 strict protection which had been accorded them, the lions had 

 increased enormously in numbers. This 1 feel safe in stating was 

 not the case. As a matter of fact the preservfrtion was never 

 very strict. The Darbar was always very liberal in granting the 

 local officers and others permission to shoot a lion ; all the cubs 

 captured in the Gir were invariably sent to Junagadh to be 

 ])laced in confinement in the gardens, and I was told as a fact that 

 the Rabaris or local cattle herds, who naturally had no love for 

 the lions, made away with any cubs they came across if they found 

 there they could do so without fear of detection. Moreover, although 

 there are no lions in Baroda territory, which bounds the Junagadh 

 Gir on the east, some of the best jungles for lions on the Junagadh 

 side abut on this boimdary and I should be sorry to say how many 

 lions have been killed by their not keeping within their own limits, 



