GAME PROTECTIOX IN IXDIA. 35 



4. The. Central Proi'lncea. 



As a whole, the Centi'al Provinces may be considered to be tlie 

 most advanced so far as game protection is concerned. The 

 shooting regulations will be referred to at a later stage. They 

 were revised by the Chief Commissioner in his Notification 

 No. 1263, dated 28th October, 1907. For my present purpose it 

 is sufficient to notice that they provide that areas or blocks of 

 forests may be closed to shooting ahsolutehj for purposes of forest 

 management or as sanctuaries for the protection of game, other 

 than carnivora, for the destruction of which special permits may 

 be issued. The list of closed forests or blocks is prepared each 

 year in October by the Conservators and is pnljlished in the 

 Central Provinces Gazette, and copies are hung up in the Deputy 

 Commissioner's and Forest Officer's offices. 



It will thus be obvious that the Game Sanctuaries in the 

 Central Provinces are formed automatically by the closing alter- 

 nately of difterent forests or blocks of forest yearly. As a 

 matter of fact, however, most of the present sanctuaries, though 

 in many instances reduced in size, have been game sanctuaries 

 since 1902, though a few others have been added later. It would 

 be better if these areas were closed for periods of not more or 

 less than three years. Of course, in the case of areas closed 

 for purposes of forest management it is possible that they are 

 closed for a consideiuble period of yeai'S, but nothing is said 

 on this score in the rules nor as to the length of time blocks 

 are closed for purely sanctuary purposes. 



In addition to the automatic closure and opening of blocks 

 there are other most valuable restrictions for the preservation 

 of game, and I believe that I am cori'ect in stating that this 

 procedure is now applied to most of the blocks, instead of 

 automatically closing and opening them. In any particular 

 block or series of blocks only a certain head of any particular 

 species may be shot. As soon as this number has been reached, 

 that species is closed to shooting for the year. This rule might 

 well be introduced elsewhere in the country. It is really better 

 than the procedure of the Nilgiri Game Association of allowing 

 each sportsman to shoot one or two head of each species, since 

 the latter safeguard is in force also in the Central Provinces, 

 The permit of each spoi'tsman is endorsed with the number of 

 head he may shoot, e. g. one bison, one sambhar, two chital, four 

 other deer, and carnivora ad. lib., jyrovided the maxiimmi number 

 of head of the species alio inahle to he shot in the year has not been 

 already reached. This latter information is supplied him either 

 by the divisional officer or l)y the Range officers in the areas for 

 which his permit is made out. Were not this latter provision in 

 force, one sportsman might shoot the whole number of, say, Bara- 

 singha {Cervus duvauceli) permissible for the year and thus close 

 this particular animal to succeeding guns for the rest of the 

 season — a somewhat unfair and onerous restriction. 



In the Central Provinces excluding Berar in 1909 there were 



24 Game Sanctuaries with an area of 1445 square miles in the 



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