516 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



The Chief Conservator of Forests of the Central Provinces gives 

 the following information (in litt., July, 1937) : 



"This animal . . . has undoubtedly lost ground considerably in 

 the past. Its former range was what it is at present, but the numbers 

 of the herds and of the individuals in the herds have become very 

 much less. There are less undisturbed areas and stretches of un- 

 broken forest now than formerly, and this animal is peculiarly 

 liable to epidemic diseases. The distribution formerly was the hilly 

 forest tracts of Nimar, the Melghat, Hoshangabad, Betul, Chind- 

 wara, Seoni, Chanda, Balaghat, Mandla, Bilaspur, Raipur, Yeotmal 

 and Damoh Districts. ... In Damoh it is now extinct .... It 

 is probable that there has been disappearance from many privately 

 owned and non-reserved forests .... Reduction in the number of 

 Bison occurs periodically from epidemic disease (the main cause 

 of the decline of the species) and herds take several years to recover. 

 Frequently such attacks are so severe as to result in enfeeblement of 

 the stock or even total destruction of local herds. In the Melghat 

 Forest Division, to take one example only, however, the present 

 population of Gaur must run into well over a thousand, and of 

 recent years the number has increased rapidly. 



"Practically no economic use. The animal is so obviously related 

 to the sacred cow of India that poaching is not common .... 

 Even a few of the forest tribes are averse to eating the meat. The 

 hide is usually too heavy for local demand and being rarely met 

 with is not popular. 



"Protection of this species in the Government Forests has been 

 rigid in the past and still is. In some districts total prohibition has 

 been in force for several years. . . . Inoculation of cattle resorting 

 to grazing has been undertaken for the first time this year in the 

 Banjar Reserve of Mandla which is a game sanctuary." 



Edward Thompson writes (in London Times, August 19, 1932?) : 

 "The Indian bison is safe in South India. Indore, in Central India, 

 still has a tiny herd, which the Maharajah protects, and told me 

 he had every intention of continuing to protect. He had taken note 

 of what had happened in the neighbouring state of Gwalior, whose 

 last bison, a herd of 30, were surrounded and shot down 15 years 

 ago by 'temporary gentlemen' (I am quoting a seditious Englishman 

 in Gwalior), who had taken the trouble to come over 20 miles to 

 achieve this feat." 



The Government of Bihar reports (in litt., December, 1936) : 

 "This animal is nowhere common. Its numbers have been greatly 

 reduced at times through rinderpest. It is found in the Palamau 

 district, where there are two or three herds of about 8 in each 

 herd, and in parts of the Singhbhum district where there is perhaps 

 the same number. Its habitat was formerly somewhat more exten- 



