GAME PROTECTION IN INDIA 269 



on areas in which shooting is practically a right in all but 

 name. 



It is, we fear, hardly to be expected that the question of 

 the formation of Sanctuaries and their closing will be 

 received without opposition throughout the country, even 

 amongst the Europeans, but I am of opinion that the 

 matter is one of such great importance that the outcry of 

 the few interested people opposed from personal motives 

 to their formation on Government Land, both Reserve Forest 

 and Waste Land, should not be allowed to blind the public 

 generally to their immense value. It is conceivable that the 

 Zemindar and large landed private proprietors would in 

 course of time follow an example so set when its value had 

 made itself apparent to them. 



The policing of the Sanctuary is a matter requiring some 

 consideration. It may prove comparatively easy to check 

 illicit shooting both on the part of the European and native, 

 although even this is not a facile matter in the case of 

 Sanctuaries of large size in remote localities. The question 

 of dealing with the poacher pure and simple who goes to 

 work without firearms is even a more difficult problem, 

 whose importance, as we have seen, has as yet been scarcely 

 realized by either the Supreme or Local Governments. 



The Indian Wild Birds and Animals Protection 

 Act of 1912 



This Act was passed on i8th September, 1912. It is 

 entitled — " An Act to make better provision for the protec- 

 tion and preservation of certain Wild Birds and Animals." 



Its clauses are as follows : — 



Short title and extent. — i. (i) This Act may be called the 

 Wild Birds and Animals Protection Act, 1912 ; and 



(2) It extends to the whole of British India, including British 

 Baluchistan, the Sonthal Parganas, and the Pargana of Spiti. 



Application oj Act. — 2. (i) This Act applies, in the first 

 instance, to the birds and animals specified in the Schedule, 

 when in their wild state. 



(2) The Local Government may, by notification in the local 

 official Gazette, apply the provisions of this Act to any kind of 

 wild bird or animal, other than those specified in the Schedule, 

 which, in its opinion, it is desirable to protect or preserve. 



