280 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



District official and the rules under which he can enjoy 

 sport in a District. 



The rules under which the District official enjoys sport in 

 his District are, it would appear, quite fair in most if not all 

 Provinces. 



I think, however, that the outside sportsman has often 

 a justifiable complaint, though more often than not he goes 

 the wrong way to work in making it, and so puts himself 

 out of court. 



The whole matter really turns, and must always turn, on 

 the number of individuals of a particular species it is per- 

 missible to shoot in a given area. This number can only be 

 fixed by the District Officers on the spot. There can be no 

 cavil against this, as they are, or ought to be, the best judges 

 on the question. 



In fact, as matters in game protection at present stand, 

 and in the absence of a separate Game Protection establish- 

 ment, there can be no appeal from their decision. 



Probably the best and most elastic method for the 

 outside sportsman is to give him a block or blocks, depending 

 on what is available on receipt of his application, and to 

 enter on his permit the number of individuals of any one 

 species he may shoot and the number of different species. 

 This number would, of course, vary according to the length 

 of time for which the permit was issued, but would never 

 exceed a fixed maximum for each species. So far so good. 



But it will doubtless soon be found necessary to definitely 

 limit the number of head of a species to be shot in any one 

 area in a year, as is done, in fact, in the Central Provinces. 

 It is in this limitation that complaints arise and causes for 

 friction come in. 



For instance, supposing twelve sambhar may be shot in 

 any particular block. A military man, whose leave season 

 will not open before the I5th April, applies for and is allotted 

 a block. He arrives to find the maximum annual number 

 of the animal it is permitted to kill already reached and is 

 debarred from shooting that particular species. It is quite 

 conceivable that he might find more than one species in the 

 same condition. In fact, the total number of head of a 

 particular species might be easily shot off by the civilian 

 element in the first couple of months of the open season, the 

 animal becoming then de facto closed to shooting for the rest 

 of the open season. 



