ORDER PROBOSCIDEA: PROBOSCIDEANS 313 



wire fence properly upkept and with a path kept reasonably clean on the 

 jungle boundary . . . would in most cases keep elephants from entering the 

 cultivated area. . . . 



The removal of protection from Elephants, a measure taken in 1929, was 

 condemned by the vast majority of English speaking witnesses before the 

 Wild Life Commission of Malaya. This order was liable to accentuate the 

 trouble from wounded elephants and undoubtedly, as evidence showed, forced 

 elephants into localities where they had never been known before. This 

 unwise order was rescinded on the 15th of May, 1931, and the elephant 

 cannot now be shot at by an unlicensed person except in alleged defence of 

 property. . . . 



Raids on native cultivation are often due to neglect. Persons familiar with 

 the habits of elephants can often move a herd from the vicinity of cultivation 

 by following them up all day until they are miles away from the locality 

 they visited the previous night. . . . 



How do Sakai in their primitive state handle the planting of crops in ele- 

 phant country? Showing more wisdom than their white brothers, they leave 

 elephants alone. ... In the Sakai country, which lies between the main 

 range and the Kelantan Railway, the Sakai suffer no damage from elephants. 

 The elephants, not being disturbed and harried, have not learned to "answer 

 back." 



[Some hold an opinion] that a very large percentage of the so-called damage 

 done by elephants is only done to patches of abandoned cultivation, and 

 when inhabited land is attacked it is not infrequently done by bad-tempered 

 elephants suffering from wounds of sorts which are caused by some home- 

 made bullets fired from a shot gun. 



F. N. Chasen writes (in litt., May 5, 1937) : "The question of 

 protecting the elephant in the Malay Peninsula raises and crystal- 

 lizes the whole policy of local big-game preservation. Can big-game 

 co-exist with modern agriculturalists? My view is that the elephant 

 should be protected in reserves : outside the reserves he must behave 

 himself, or be shot. These are, of course, the extremes of the case 

 and a middle course is, sometimes, permissible when directed by an 

 experienced game-warden. The Malayan elephant is decreasing in 

 numbers, rapidly, in the settled areas. It is still numerous elsewhere." 



Peninsular Siam. The following two accounts relate to the 

 uninhabited country about the northern end of the Inland Sea : 



"On the plain and in the forest a herd of about 300 wild elephants 

 are roaming. . . . These elephants have from time to time been 

 captured, but their death has always resulted after some compara- 

 tively short time." (Havmoller, 1926, p. 365.) 



"From government officials with whom I was traveling I learned 

 that a herd of at least 200 elephants ranges over the vast grassy 

 plain extending southward from near Nakon Sritamarat almost to 

 Singora on the west side of the Inland Sea and practically from the 

 Gulf of Siam to the high mountains in the west. This plain, suitable 

 for rice growing, is entirely uncultivated owing to the ravages of the 

 elephants." (H. M. Smith, 1926, pp. 365-366.) 



Elephants are protected in Siam because "they are considered 



