542 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



its numbers are not likely to diminish greatly unless some epidemic 

 disease breaks out amongst them." 



The Chief Secretary of the Assam Government contributes the 

 following information (in litt., June, 1937) : "Former range: prob- 

 ably most of the plains portion of Nowgong, was plentiful in Dar- 

 rang, a large number in Sibsagar. In the North Cachar Hills and 

 Kamrup. Present range: Laokhowa and Lumding reserves, in Kuki 

 reserve during rains and along the Jamuna river up to the Disama 

 reserve during cold weather, in and near Jamuna reserve in Now- 

 gong and along the Borpani River in the North Cachar Hills and in 

 all about 100 in Nowgong Division. About 60 in Darrang, increas- 

 ing in Siju, Chuimang and Rangbinggiri area, in Garo Hills a good 

 number still exist, a few in the Panidehing and Deroi reserves and 

 some herds in the Kaziranga reserve in Sibsagar, about 400 round 

 about Nagerbera in North Kamrup. Causes of depletion: Rinder- 

 pest, poaching, opening up of land for cultivation, increase in the 

 number of guns for crop protection. The bull improves the domestic 

 stock with which it interbreeds. Flesh eaten by certain castes and 

 head, horns are used as combs, buttons, drinking cups, country 

 flutes and various other minor articles are made out of horns, bones 

 are valued for manure, hides form articles of trade especially in the 

 tanning industry. Mature males are protected in the reserved forests 

 from 1st June to 31st October but in the North Cachar Hills, Garo 

 Hills and in four mauzas of the North Lakhimpur Division these 

 species are protected throughout the whole year. The killing and 

 capture of females are prohibited in all reserved forests. There is a 

 proposal for the establishment of reserves for the preservation of 

 these species. Limitation of the number that can be shot in the 

 forest reserves is imposed." 



Peacock (1933, p. 121) writes concerning the Buffalo's status in 

 Burma : 



It is very doubtful whether the true wild buffalo still exists in Burma. One 

 gathers from Colonel Pollock's book on shooting in Burma that wild buffaloes 

 were very plentiful along the banks of the Irrawaddy and its main tributaries 

 a few decades ago. 



Wild buffaloes may still exist in the forests of the Irrawaddy Delta. The 

 villagers near the Kadonkani Reserve, in the Delta Forest Division, maintained 

 that the true wild buffalo still existed in that Reserve : in 1923 they showed me 

 some old and very large tracks and said that the wild buffalo was a much 

 larger and heavier beast than the domesticated one. ... I ... still believe 

 that they were the last remaining members of the original wild buffalo. . . . 



The last of the wild buffaloes have, no doubt, been exterminated since 

 I heard of them in 1923. 



Enemies. The Indian Buffalo seems to have no serious enemies 

 other than man and epizootics. "Association with domestic cattle, 

 grazing in wild Buffalo grounds, places these animals in constant 



