306 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



with strychnine in 1865, just a day before I arrived after 

 a forced march of a hundred miles to hunt her. More 

 commonly, however, poison is of no avail with these 

 cunning brutes ; and, as a rule, man-eaters can only be 

 killed by the European sportsman with the help of an ele- 

 phant, the native shikaris rarely attempting to molest them. 

 Elephants have been made more available than formerly, some 

 of the jungle districts having a Government one attached to 

 them, besides many possessed by various public departments ; 

 and man-eaters of a bad type now rarely survive long. I know 

 of eight or ten that have been killed by European officers since 

 1862, and I have not heard of any more for the last few 

 years. It is a great point to extinguish those brutes at the 

 outset of their career ; for, if not killed when he commences 

 to prey on human beings, a tiger becomes so cunning that it 

 is afterwards a most difficult thing to circumvent him. 



While, then, I believe that the greater outcry made of late 

 years about the ravages of wild animals is simply due, like 

 many other circumstances of old standing that have dis- 

 covered themselves of a sudden in India, to more careful 

 gathering of statistics, I certainly think that the evils shown 

 still to exist are sufficient to call for some action on the 

 part of the State. There is no doubt that an application to this 

 matter of the same administrative ability which has reformed 

 other evils would speedily reach to the root of this. Every 

 tiger which really does mischief is perfectly well known 

 locally ; and his destruction should be merely a matter of time 

 and arrangement. It should be as much the business of the 

 local officers of Government to kill off destructive tigers as to 

 capture dacoits and murderers. To do this they must, of course, 

 have the means. In a bad district one at least of the resident 

 officers, police or magisterial, should be a known sportsman ; 



