CRUELTY OF THE PITFALL PLAN. 75^ 



PITFALLS. 



A most barbarous method of catching wild elephants is by pitfalls dug 

 in their paths, and into which they fall with a readiness which is remark- 

 able in animals which are usually so cautious in all sorts of ground. The 

 pits are generally arranged in some confined pass, at seasons when elephants 

 are not in the neighbourhood, or under particular trees which they are in 

 the habit of visiting for their fruit or leaves. The standard native measure- 

 ment for pits in Mysore is ten and a half feet long by seven and a half 

 broad, and fifteen feet deep. This is a tight fit as to area for a large 

 elephant, but is purposely made so to prevent male elephants using their 

 tusks to dig down the sides. This they, however, generally manage to effect 

 in a day or two if they are left to themselves. The depth of the pits being 

 so great, it may be imagined that an immense majority of the elephants 

 that make the descent have their limbs dislocated or broken, or receive 

 permanent internal injury, even if they are not killed on the spot, as some- 

 times happens. To prevent such mishaps as far as possible, a strong bar 

 is fixed across the mouth of the pit in the centre, upon which the elephant's 

 neck usually falls ; and though it bends or breaks with his weight, it tends 

 to make him go down more level than he would otherwise do. It is seldom 

 the hunters trouble themselves to put boughs in the bottom of the pit to 

 break the force of the elephant's descent. In Mysore a perfect network oi 

 pitfaUs used to be maintained by the Maharajah, the Forest Department, 

 and a few by lessees, as also in Madras ; in these a large number of animals 

 were taken annually. An immense proportion died from the effects of this 

 violent mode of capture, and those that Hved were only small ones, whose 

 weight did not lead to such serious effects as in full-grown elephants. 



The Sholagas and Kurrabas used, when pits were in vogue in Mysore, 

 to be intrusted with their supervision. If an elephant fell into one they 

 were supposed to take the news to the station where the tame elephants 

 were kept, near the jungles, and these would then be taken by their drivers 

 to secure the animal. Between the delay made by the jungle-people and 

 the laziness of the elephant-men, many elephants were starved to death in 

 the pits, or so reduced as never to be got out of the jungle alive. Many 

 other wild animals fell into the pits besides elephants. I have myself 

 known of several bison, a pair of bears, and two pairs of tiger cubs falling 

 into them. Deer constantly did so ; and it was for the sake of their flesh, as 

 much as for the trifle that they were paid, that the jungle-people used to 

 attend to the pits. In the hot weather when cattle were taken to graze in, 



