214 SOMfi SOUTH INDIAN INSECTS, ETC. LCHAP. Will. 



Chapter XXIII. 

 SOME OTHER ANIMALS. 



"The art of seeing, so useful, so universal, and yet so uncommon, is one of the most 

 valuable a man can possess." Kikisy and 3 



INNUMERABLE animals other than insects, from elephants to minute 

 organisms invisible to the naked eye. must be included amongst 

 the farmer's friends and foes. Some destroy crops and hence are 

 injurious, some feed on crop-pests and so are themselves beneficial, 

 whilst others do neither harm nor good to man or his possessions 

 and are therefore of neutral value. 



Elephants occur in most uncultivated tracts both in the Plains 

 near and in the Hills, though commoner in the latter. In districts 

 where they occur they frequently invade cultivated areas and do an 

 immense amount of damage to crops merely by reason of their size 

 and numbers, a single full-grown elephant consuming between 6oo 

 and /00 lb. of green fodder daily. In the Hills cardamoms seem to 

 be especially attractive, whilst a young tea nursery often seems in 

 the elephantine mind to have been prepared expressly as a most 

 desirable spot to wallow in, to the total destruction of the planters' 

 hopes of young plants. Elephants usually avoid enclosed areas- 

 apparently in fear of traps, and, as they are quite unable to jump. 

 a comparatively narrow (7 feet) ditch forms an impassable barrier. 



The Gaur (Bos gaurus), commonly miscalled " Bison," occurs in 

 most of the Hill tracts and occasionally does some damage in 

 . states, whilst the Wild Buffalo (Bos bubalus) occurs in the Plains to 

 the north of the Godavari and often does great damage to crops, a 

 herd or solitary bull sometimes taking possession of a paddy-field 

 and driving away the true owners. The Nilgai (Boselaphus trago- 

 camelus) is also common in scrubby localities in the Plains as far 

 south as Mysore and often does much damage to crops. Various 

 species of deer also occur commonly and may at times invade 

 cropped areas. Shooting the trespassers, where damage is done, is 

 probably the only practical control-measure. 



No animal does more damage to crops than the Wild Pig (Sus 

 cristatus) which o< 1 urs commonlj both in the Plains and Hills. Pigs 

 often breed twice in the year, producing four to six young in each 

 litter, so that their prolific rate of increase enables them to compete 

 with most forms of destruction. Under these circumstances the 

 best thing is to protect the crops b> fencing, where these are suffi- 

 ciently valuable to repay such protection. A suitable permanent 



