USEFULNESS OF TIGERS AND PANTHERS. 269 



only considered one side of the question to urge the pursuing of every tiger 

 that can be heard of with poison, traps, and the incentive of high rewards to 

 native shikaries, is advocating a measure which would lead to a deplorable 

 state of things for the ryots. 



As to the individual value of the cattle killed by the tiger, it is to be 

 remembered that, it being against a Hindoo's tenets to take the life of the 

 sacred cow, there is always about every village a large number of old, 

 scraggy, and useless animals of no value to any one, in ridding the country 

 of which the tiger does good to the community. When a ryot's bullock 

 gets beyond ploughing, and his cow past milking, there is no sale for them, 

 as they are as useless to every one else as to himself; so they are added 

 to the other half-dozen or so of halt and blind in his fold, and sent with 

 the two or three hundred of their kind owned by the village to the 

 jungles to graze. A ryot is always careful of his really good cattle, taking 

 them with him to his fields when working, and tying them there upon the 

 divisions between the fields where there is good grass. The sight of the 

 hordes of half-starved and mangy animals returning to Indian villages in 

 the evening is a familiar one to residents in the country. These wretched 

 beasts generate the cattle diseases from which few Indian villages are ever 

 quite free, and their room is to be preferred to their company. Fortunately 

 nature assists the tigers in effecting a clearance amongst these every year. 

 At the time of the early rains the enfeebled animals eat ravenously of the 

 young grass which then springs up, become distended, and die in a few 

 hours. 



The tiger is no unmitigated evil in the land. His pursuit affords excite- 

 ment and recreation to many a hard- worked official whose life, except for an 

 occasional day in the jungles, would be one of uninterrupted toil. Many 

 officers see for themselves matters affecting the districts of which they have 

 charge when visiting out-of-the-way localities for sport, which they would 

 never learn otherwise. It is a pity to see the tiger proscribed and hunted to 

 death by every unsportsmanlike method that can be devised, in response to 

 popular outcries — chiefly in England — without foundation in fact, about his 

 destructiveness. Trace out and slay every man-eater by all means possible, 

 and at any expense ; but ordinary tigers are exceedingly inoffensive, and 

 have their uses. May the day be far distant when the tiger shall become- 

 practicaUy extinct ! 



