GAME PROTECTION IN INDIA 267 



It may be of interest to give as an instance the procedure 

 in the Central Provinces. 



As a whole, the Central Provinces may be considered to be 

 one of the most advanced regions so far as game protection 

 is concerned. The shooting regulations provide that areas 

 or blocks of forests may be closed to shooting absolutely 

 for purposes of forest management or as sanctuaries for the 

 protection of game, other than carnivora, for the destruction 

 of which special permits may be issued. The list of closed 

 forests or blocks is prepared each year in October by the 

 Conservators and is published in the Central Provinces 

 Gazette, and copies are hung up in the offices of the 

 Deputy Commissioner and Forest Officer. 



It will thus be obvious that the Game Sanctuaries in the 

 Central Provinces are formed automatically by the closing 

 alternately of different forests or blocks of forest yearly. 

 As a matter of fact, however, most of the present Sanctuaries, 

 though in many instances reduced in size, have been Game 

 Sanctuaries since 1902, though a few others have been 

 added later. It would be better if these areas were closed for 

 periods of not more or less than three years. Of course, in 

 the case of areas reserved for purposes of forest management 

 it is possible that they are closed for a considerable period 

 of years, but nothing is said on this score in the rules nor 

 as to the length of time blocks are closed for purely sanctuary 

 purposes. 



In addition to the automatic closure and opening of 

 blocks there are other most valuable restrictions for the 

 preservation of game, and I believe that I am correct in 

 stating that this procedure is now applied to most of the 

 blocks, instead of automatically closing and opening them. 

 In any particular block or series of blocks only a certain 

 head of any particular species may be shot. As soon as 

 this number has been reached, that species is closed to 

 shooting for the year. This rule might well be introduced 

 elsewhere in the country. The permit of each sportsman is 

 endorsed with the number of head he may shoot, e.g., one 

 bison, one sambhar, two chital, four other deer, and carnivora 

 ad. lib., provided the maximum number of head of the species al- 

 lowable to be shot in the year has not been already reached. This 

 latter information is supplied to the sportsman either by 

 the divisional officer or by the Range officers in the areas for 

 which his permit is made out. Were not this latter pro- 



