CHAPTER XXI 



GAME SANCTUARIES AND GAME PROTECTION IN INDIA 



Necessity for the protection of the game and fauna generally — Abundance 

 of game in former times — Causes of decrease of game — Opening up 

 of the country— The sportsman — The native shikari — The unarmed 

 poacher — Attitude of Supreme and Local Governments in former 

 times to game preservation — Present attitude — Government of India 

 the owner of the game — Attitude of villager in matter — The Game 

 Sanctuary — Description of types of Game Sanctuaries — Game 

 protection in the Central Provinces — Policing of Sanctuary — The 

 New Indian Game Act — Some reflections on the Act — The outside 

 sportsman in the district. 



IN this chapter I propose to treat of the question of 

 Game Sanctuaries and Game Protection ; whilst in 

 the succeeding ones the matter will be regarded from 

 the economic point of view and the wider aspect of the 

 protection of the fauna of the country generally. All 

 sportsmen who have studied the question at all closely 

 will readily agree that it is not possible for a country, for 

 any of the countries of the world, to continue indefinitely 

 to provide either sport or commercial products unless some 

 measure of protection is extended to the animals which 

 yield them. Our own islands form an apt illustration. 

 Had not a vigorous protection been afforded to the 

 animals combined with the formation of extensive sanc- 

 tuaries — the New Forest and Forest of Dean were Royal 

 Sanctuaries in olden times — some of our formerly existing 

 wild animals would have been exterminated at a far earlier 

 date than was the case ; and nowadays all sport necessitates 

 the closest protection, combined with artificial rearing, to 

 maintain the required head per area. And the bulk of the 

 animal life so reared and protected, deer, birds and fish, is 

 sold for human consumption after it has been shot or 

 captured. 



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