xxii He'[)(nt on the Zoological Survey of Iiidia 



APPENDIX A. 



Extract from the Government of India, Departmental Education, Resolu- 

 tion No. 19-Museum, dated Simla, the 20th^June 1916. 



Tho Government of India have had under then consideration for some 

 time jiast a scheme for the constitution of a Zoological Survey of India 

 on the basis of the Zoological and Anthropological Section of the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. The scheme has recently been approved by the Secre- 

 tary of State for India and His Excellency the Governor General in Council 

 is pleased to publish the details for the information of local Governments 

 and Administrations and the general public. The Survey will come into 

 force on July 1st, 1916. 



2. In March 1913 the Chairman of the Trustees of the Indian Museum 

 forwarded a representation from the Superintendent of the Zoological and 

 Anthropological Section of the Museum regarding the recognition of the 

 Zoological Section as a Zoological Survey. The Government of India who 

 had already under consideration the desirability of establishing on a sound 

 basis a Zoological Survey of India informed the Trustess of the Museum 

 that they would be prepared to consider a scheme for such a survey on 

 lines somewhat similar to the existing Botanical Survey and asked to be 

 furnished with the necessary details. The Trustees accordingly submitted 

 their proposals at the end of September 1913. They represented that, 

 though it had been definitely recognised in the past that field work and 

 zoological research formed an important part of the official duties of the 

 scientific officers of the Zoological and Anthropological Section of the 

 Museum, both l^ranches of work had been necessarily undertaken in a some- 

 what haphazard manner. Different officers had taken up the investigation 

 of different groups of animals and had visited various parts of India and 

 Burma in connection with their investigation without there being a definite 

 programme drawn up each year or a comprehensive scheme of research 

 instituted. In short, this part of the duties of the section had been in 

 an experimental stage. They thought accordingly that the time had come 

 to pass to further developments and suggested the establishment of a Zoolo- 

 gical . Survey. The detailed proposals of the Trustees were approved by the 

 Board of Scientific Advice to whom they were submitted and the Govern- 

 ment of India in recommending them to the Secretary of State in their 

 Financial despatch No. 366, dated the 11th December 1915, urged the follow- 

 ing additional considerations in support of the scheme : — " In the first 

 place " they stated " since medicine, more specially tropical medicine, is 

 intimately connected with certain branches of zoology, it is obvious that 

 anything that furthers the interests of zoological research in this country 

 will indirectly benefit medicine and sanitation materially. Secondly, outside 

 interest in Indian zoology has increased in recent years and more attention 

 is now devoted to it by individuals and societies in India. In the publi- 

 cation entitled — -Records of the Indian Museum — 35 original papers on 

 zoology have been published since March 1914, of which 14 have been 

 written in India. Ten contributors of notes or papers have been zoologists 

 resident in this country who are not Members of the museum staff, while 

 not less than five contributors have been Indians. Moreover, at the pre- 

 sent time a survey of mammals is being carried on by the Bombay Natural 

 History Society to which we have recently given a gi'^nt of Rs. 7,500." 



3. The proposals as finally sanctioned by the Secretary of State are as 

 follows :— 



(a) The headciuarters of the Survey will be the Indian Museum. The 

 reports in recent years of the Zoological and Anthropological 



