GAME PROTECTION IN INDIA 257 



It might have been thought that a country so extensive 

 as India would not have required that protection should be 

 extended to its fauna for many a long year to come. Yet 

 a perusal of the incidents and deductions contained in the 

 previous pages will, I think, prove that this is by no means 

 the case. 



I propose, therefore, to lay down the rifle and consider 

 the beautiful jungles of India from the point of view of the 

 steps which appear necessary to ensure the maintenance of 

 the game and fauna generally, in the threefold interests of 

 its health-giving capacity and enjoyment to the hard- 

 worked Anglo-Indian, in the interests of its revenue-produc- 

 ing possibilities, and in those of zoological science. 



During the past decade or so it has become increasingly 

 evident to the keen sportsman in India, to the man who is 

 not alone animated by the mere desire to kill, that the game 

 of the country is in many parts in serious danger of dis- 

 appearing owing amongst other causes to the extraordinary 

 developments in modern sporting rifles, to the greater facili- 

 ties in communications and to the increasing numbers of 

 those out to kill. With many others it would be invidious 

 to mention names since there must be many with whom I 

 am unacquainted I have given this question careful study 

 for some years. As a result of observations carried but 

 personally, and enquiries made in many parts of India, I 

 have been gradually led to the conclusion that it is not only 

 the game animals that are in jeopardy, but the fauna as a 

 whole and especially that very interesting portion of it 

 which has its home in the jungles and great forests. Under 

 the orderly and systematic conservation of the forests by 

 the Forest Department it has become evident that a pro- 

 portion of the shier members of the fauna, those who 

 require large areas of untouched primeval forest to dwell in, 

 must without adequate protection inevitably disappear. 

 Now this is an important matter, and admittedly opens 

 out a very large question ; but it is one, I think, which is 

 not beyond the scope and power of the Government of 

 India to grapple with aided by the advice of its scientific 

 experts, combined with the help which the true sportsmen 

 in the country will be only too ready to offer. And it has 

 its economic side, a not unimportant one. This aspect of 

 the question, which it is probable will require similar 

 consideration and treatment in America, Africa and 



