ORDER PERISSODACTYLA: ODD-TOED UNGULATES 377 



dozen individuals in all, but unfortunately these outliers have no spare 

 coverts into which they can expand. . . . 



Contrary to what one hears of African rhino, ours is seldom aggressive, 

 nor does he cause havoc to agricultural crops like the elephant. 



For the last 25 years in Bengal and Assam rhino have been closed to 

 sportsmen, but this has not saved them from poachers, who shoot them to 

 obtain their horns. From time immemorial these have been highly prized 

 for superstitious reasons. A cup made of the horn of a rhinoceros is still 

 believed to render poison innocuous, a point of some importance to tyran- 

 nical rulers, and, when powdered, it is held in the East, especially in China, 

 to be the most potent aphrodisiac. It is believed that most of the horns 

 that are smuggled out of these jungles eventually find their way to China, 

 but however this may be their present value in the Calcutta market is about 

 half their weight in gold. A single horn retrieved from the poachers recently 

 fetched 150 pounds, and still higher prices have been known. That an 

 animal by nature condemned to carry such a price on his nose should tempt 

 poachers is not to be wondered at, but the remoteness of their strongholds, 

 and their armour, too thick to be penetrated by "gas-pipe" guns, was their 

 protection, and up to about six years ago there were probably some 200 

 animals living in the small tract I have described. 



Then poaching began. The first poachers came from Assam, where they 

 had plied the same trade, and brought with them muzzle-loading guns heavy 

 enough to kill a rhino. They were j pined by local men of the same tribe 

 (Mechs) and formed themselves into gangs. Their plan was to build a 

 light bamboo staging about 8 ft. above the ground at strategic points, usually 

 where two well-worn rhino tracks met, and lie up when ths moon was nearly 

 full. Sooner or later a victim was bound to pass and received a heavy bullet 

 at a range of a few feet .... They seldom took more than the horn; to 

 try to dispose of the meat, which, by the way, is -excellent eating, would 

 have aroused suspicion .... For nearly three years this went on without 

 any suspicion being aroused. 



After the poaching was detected, it required six months or more of 

 effort by the Forest Department and the Government of Bengal to 

 stop the poaching. A bill was passed, making the killing of rhino, 

 except in defense of life, an offense. 



"Our attempts have so far been successful. Since Christmas, 1931, 

 so far as we know, only one rhino has been killed, and the perpe- 

 trators are now in gaol." 



The Government of Bihar (in litt., December, 1936) sends the 

 following information: "The Great One-horned Rhinoceros was 

 formerly fairly common in the jungles of North Bihar bordering on 

 Nepal, especially . . . near the Kosi river, and individuals were 

 found until 50 or 60 years ago. The jungles in this area have prac- 

 tically disappeared and the animal is unknown except as an occa- 

 sional stray visitor from Nepal into the jungles in the North West 

 corner of the Champaran district." 



The Senior Conservator of Forests, Bengal, writes (in litt., Sep- 

 tember, 1937) : 



"Former range: Jalpaiguri Forests (common) and Riparian 

 Forests of the Buxa Division (no information as to number) . 



