PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION FOR INDIAN FISHERIES. 643 



perhaps, in time prove oppressive to the people. The example of the working 

 of the forest laws is often quoted as a case in point. There is apparently a 

 fear that the creation of any machinery, however modest, for efficiently 

 working the Fishery Act would mean the letting loose on the people of a 

 horde of rapacious native underlings, eager, like most of their kind, for 

 extortion and blackmail, and ever ready in the perpetration of every descrip- 

 tion of petty tyranny and oppression. But these fears are surely either 

 altogether unfounded or very much exaggerated. It would be possible to 

 protect Indian fisheries to a very large extent without an army of native 

 assistants. It has already been pointed out that it is the greater accessibility 

 of the rivers to the markets, thus leading to an enormously greater drain upon 

 their fish life, which is largely answerable for the depletion now so largely 

 prevalent. Ih is not, therefore, absolutely necessary to patrol the banks of 

 every river by means of armies of watchers. If only the markets themselves 

 are carefully watched they will readily afford a great deal of inforn ation. 

 They will tell us, for instance, whether fish have been poisoned, whether fry, 

 immature, or spawning fish are being killed whether the close times, if any, are 

 bein^ observed, and so on. By watching the great markets in this way it will 

 soon be possible to see where and by whom the regulations considered neces- 

 sary locally are being broken. And in the framing of these local regulations the 

 fishery inspector would naturally be consulted by the local authorities. He 

 would carefully examine into the conditions on the spot, diagnosing the 

 disease from which the river was suffering, and prescribing an appropriate 

 remedy. The use of dynamite or poison might be indicated ; he would take 

 steps to discover the culprits and procure their conviction. The absence of 

 all but large fish from a stream which ought to maintain a g> od stock of fry 

 and smaller fish would evidently point to fixed obstructions, the use of ille- 

 gally small mesh nets, and so on. In extreme cases he might even advise that 

 the most drastic section of the Act be put in force, and all taking of fish be 

 prohibited for a prolonged period. A system of licensing fishermen, such licen- 

 ses costing merely a nominal amount, might also be introduced with advan- 

 tage. Questions of acclimatisation, of spawning times, and other fish pro- 

 blems still to a large extent undecided might be systematically taken up, and 

 an enormous amount of most valuable evidence thus accumulated. All this 

 might be done at a very tr. fling cost, but the benefits to be derived from a 

 common-sense fishery policv in India would be immense — so great, indeed, that 

 the question surely deserves greater and more sympathetic attention than has 

 hitherto been bestowed on it. 



Let any one take a population map of India. He will then be able to see 

 at a glance that the broad belt of fertile plains running parallel to the 

 Himalaya and on either bank of the Ganges constitute some of the most 

 densely-populated districts in India. Immediately north of this h«avily-pe< pled 

 tract lies a very thinly populated zone of hill country, the lower spurs and 

 valleys of the Himalaya. Now, at the present moment the few inhabitants 

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