44 MR. E. P. STEBBING OX 



Mild a permit would never be graiited under ordinary circum- 

 stHuces to the casual sportsman. 



III. The Open Forests. — The Open Forests are divided into 

 three Divisions. These are opened each year from 1st Mai-cli 

 to 31st July and for ten days at Christmas in rotation, i. e. each 

 division is open for one year and closed for two. The divisions 

 are each divided up into separate blocks. Sportsmen wishing to 

 shoot in any special block register their names, together with a 

 fee of R. 25 before the 1st December. The names of persons 

 applying for the blocks, in the event of there being more tha,n 

 one, are publicly balloted for by lot on a date fixed somewhere 

 about 1st January and the permits are issued accordingly. Persons 

 drawing a block pay an additional fee of E. 25 for each member 

 of the party intending to shoot. Those failing to draw a block 

 are I'efunded their deposited fee. 



Anyone not occupying his block within a month of March 1st 

 may be made to forfeit his right to do so, in which case the block 

 is given to the next name drawn. 



Priority of claim to an open block is always allowed to a 

 person resident within H.H. the Nizam's territories. 



The number of tigers allowed to be shot in a block is limited 

 to a total average of two per each I'ifle in the party. 



Deer are not, and never have been, protected in any wa)^, a.nd 

 as nearly every person in the State is armed with a firearm of 

 some sort, from the latest thing in Rigby cordite rifles to a 

 horse-pistol, practically the only game existing outside the State 

 Preserves is confined to carnivora and bears. 



IV. The Jaghirs. — Jaghirdars have the right to give or refuse 

 shooting-permits to applicants to shoot in their land, as they 

 think fit. For others permission to shoot in a Jaghir is a private 

 matter between the sportsman and the Jaghirdar. 



4. Pannah State (Bundelkhand). 



In the Pannali State there are two State Sanctuaries of about 

 50 sq. miles apiece, which have existed from time immemorial. 

 No one is permitted to shoot in these, save the Maharaja and the 

 Political Agent, so that they are not Game Sanctuaries in the 

 ti'ue sense of the word. The license granted foi- shooting in other 

 })arts of the State prohibits tlie killing of tiger, chital, stag, 

 sambhar (when hornless or in velvet), and doe sambhar through- 

 out the year. 



In a letter answering some enquiries put to him on the question 

 of Game Protection in the Central India States, Mr. R. M. 

 Williamson, I.F.S., who has a considerable experience of these 

 States, wrote: — " Generally there is no pi-otection of any sort of 

 game outside the special State Preserves, except tiger, the killing 

 of which is reserved for the ruler. This state of affairs is geneial 

 in the Native States of Central India, and it is impossible to effect 

 any improvement in this respect till additional forests are reserved 



