PROTECTION OF WILD BIRDS IN INDIA, 1105 



(2) The Elephant Preservation Acts of 1873 and 1879. (Madras I of 1873, 

 and India VI of 1879). — These Acts prohibit the killing, injuring, or cap- 

 turing of wild elephants, except in self defence or under a license. 



(3) Forest Laics, (a).— The Indian Forest Act, 1878 (VII of 1878)— 

 Sections 25 (t) and 31 (j) ; (b) Madras Forest Act, 1882— Sections 21 (1) 

 and 26 (/) ; and (c) Burma Forest Act, 1902— Sections 26 (A) and 33 (c). 



The amount of protection afforded by the rules made under these laws 

 differs in various Provinces. They provide (except in the case of Coorg) 

 for a close season, and most of them require permits before any hunting, 

 snaring, or trapping can be indulged in in reserved forests. 



(4) The Wild Birds and Game Protection Act of 1887. (Act XX of 1887). 



(5) The Act relating to Fisheries in British India. (Act IV of 1897). 

 This Act prohibits the destruction of fish by dynamite or other explosive 

 substance in any water, or by the poisoning of water ; and provides for 

 the protection of fish in selected waters. 



As the scope of the present enquiry is restricted to birds alone, it will 

 only be necessary to turn our attention to No. (4) — The Wild Birds and 

 Game Protection Act of 1887. This Act extends to the whole of British 

 India, and empowers Local Governments, Municipalities, and Cantonments 

 to frame rules prohibiting (a) the possession or sale during its breeding 

 season within the Municipality or Cantonment of any kind of Wild Bird 

 recently killed or taken ; and (b) the importation into the Municipality or 

 Cantonment of the plumage of any kind of wild bird during such season. 



It would be tedious and wearisome to dilate on the early history of what 

 is known as the " protection" movement, which, beginning in 1869, culmi- 

 nated in the Act of 1887. It will suffice to state for our purpose that 

 in 1886 the question of having a general game law for India engaged the 

 attention of the authorities, but such law was then considered unnecessary. 

 It was, however, decided that Local Governments should be empowered 

 to frame rules prohibiting the sale of game within cantonments or towns 

 during a specified season of the year, and with this object, the Act (XX of 

 1887) was passed. It is chiefly directed against the destruction of birds, 

 but Local Governments have the power to apply its provisions to any other 

 game. 



The limited provisions of this Act, which apply to Municipal and Can- 

 tonment areas only, will be readily understood when we bear in mind 

 some of the reasons which actuated Government in objecting to afford 

 wider and more stringent measures of protection. They were : — 



(a) The predominant claims of agriculture, to which all other 



considerations must be subservient. 



(b) The undesirability of interfering with the livelihood of forest 



and other wild tribes, who depend largely upon the capture 

 of game for their subsistence. 



