PRESERVATION OF INDIAN LAND FAUNA 291 



its deliberations were confined to the preservation of 

 animals of sporting and economic value only. And this 

 rather narrow outlook has governed the operations of the 

 Great Powers and local administrators in the wilder and 

 tropical portions of the globe to the present day. The 

 preservation of game has always been the main factor 

 underlying the action taken. The economic value of the 

 fauna has only received a cursory attention ; and the 

 question of the preservation of the fauna as a whole has 

 scarcely received any countenance. It may be admitted, 

 however, that the pioneer work done has been of the 

 highest value. 



In alluding to the work in this connection which has been 

 done by the Government in India Dr. Chalmers Mitchell 

 added : " The fact remains that India, a country which 

 still contains a considerable remnant of one of the richest 

 faunas of the world, and which also is probably more 

 efficiently under the control of a highly educated body of 

 permanent officials, central and local, than any other 

 country in the world, has no provision for the protection of 

 its fauna simply as animals." 



In 1909 Lord Crewe, then Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, received a deputation arranged by the Society 

 for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire. One 

 of the questions discussed was that of changes in the 

 locality of reserves. Such changes were, I think, made 

 or became necessary owing to the opening-up of the country 

 by railways, extension of agriculture, and so forth. 



It was pointed out, by Dr. Mitchell I think, that a change 

 of one piece of land for another, even if both were of equal 

 area, might be satisfactory in affording the protection 

 desired for certain animals, either of sporting or economic 

 value, but from a zoological point of view, in the interests 

 of the preservation of the fauna as a whole of the locality, 

 might prove the reverse of satisfactory. This is a view I 

 have long held. Primeval forests and lands which have 

 never been interfered with by man may contain, undoubtedly 

 do contain, many small forms of animal life which can only 

 live under such conditions. Alter these conditions and they 

 will be exterminated once and for all. This is necessarily a 

 point upon which the trained zoologist alone can speak with 

 any certainty ; but if that zoologist has had the good 

 fortune to spend a number of years studying the tropical 



