The Indian or Asiatic Elephant 



that so-called white elephants appear to be less uii- / 

 common in these eastern states than in either India or 

 Ceylon ; and there is also the circumstance that Burmese 

 elephants breed more readily in confinement than is the 

 case with Indian elephants. So far as they go, these 

 are points in favour of the racial distinctness of the 

 elephants of the mainland on the eastern side of the Bay 

 of Bengal from their Indian and Cingalese relatives. 



The Malay elephant differs from the Ceylon race in 

 that practically all the males are tuskers. These 

 animals are to be met with all over the Federated 

 Malay States, but are less numerous in Selangor and 

 Perak than elsewhere. 



As regards their present distribution in India, 

 elephants are found along the foot of the Himalaya as 

 far west as the valley of Dehra Dun, where the winter 

 temperature falls to a comparatively low point. A 

 favourite haunt used to be the swamp of Azufghur, 

 lying among the sal -forests to the northward of the 

 station of Meerut. In the great tract of forest between 

 the Ganges and Kistna rivers they occur locally as far 

 west as Bilaspur and Mandla ; they are met with in 

 the Western Ghats as far north as between latitude 17' 

 and 18°, and are likewise found in the hill-forests of 

 Mysore (the hunting district of G. P. Sanderson in his 

 earlier days) as well as still farther south. In this part 

 of the peninsula they ascend the hills to a considerable 

 height, as they do in the Newera Ellia district of 

 Ceylon, where they have been encountered at an 

 elevation of over 7000 feet above the sea. There is 

 evidence to prove that about three centuries ago 

 elephants wandered in the forests of Malwa and Nimar, 

 while they survived to a much later date in the Chanda 

 district of the Central Provinces. At the comparatively 

 remote epoch when the Deccan was a forest tract, they 

 were probably also to be met with there, but the swamps 

 of the Bengal Sandarbans appear to be unsuited to their 

 habits. 



17 c 



V 



