GAME PROTECTION IN INDIA. 51 



issue rewards for the destruction of a particular species which is 

 on the increase and becoming a danger either to public life or 

 property or to the sporting interests of a particular area of 

 country. 



Also, save in exceptional cases, e. g. rogue elephants and man- 

 eaters, I would abolish the giving of a reward for evei'y tiger, 

 leopai'd, wild dog or wolf slain. 



Where any of these animals wei'e becoming a pest or scourge to 

 the community or endangering the head of game of other species 

 in any locality, the Local Government should notify or empower 

 its officers to notify a reward or scale of rewards to remain in 

 force until the danger is past and the balance of power between 

 man and animal or animal and animal is once again normal. The 

 rewards on the prescribed animals should then be taken off. 



Every shooting season nowadays sees an army of eager spoi-ts- 

 men competing for blocks and shooting-permits, and sui-ely the 

 giving of the old-time reward for a tiger is quite unnecessary. 

 I would leave the grant of rewards or offer of rewards to the 

 discretion of the District officer or Forest officer. They would 

 when necessary prescribe such and such an animal to be a man- 

 eater or cattle-lifter of notoriety and would fix a rewaid upon the 

 animal, procuring, if considered necessary, the sanction of the 

 Commissioner or Conservator to their doing so. Why Government 

 should nowadays pay a reward of from Rupees 20 to Rupees 50 

 for a tiger which may be a pure game-eater and rarely if ever 

 touch a cow (and thei-e are numbers of such) is beyond my com- 

 prehension. Sportsmen will not slack off if the rewards are 

 withdrawn. Many a district official would be only too delighted 

 if they would. Once a man-eater or a noted cattle-lifter is pro- 

 claimed, then make it worth the sportmen's while to collect to 

 tackle him by giving straight off a large reward commencing at 

 R. 200 and going rapidly up to R. 500. It would be a far more 

 satisfactory way of working the reward system both from the 

 point of view of the cultivator, the man who lives on the soil, and 

 that of the sportsman, and, I think, would probably be less costly 

 to Government. 



Or rewards might be offered only for tigers in a district or parts 

 of a district where a noted man-eater or cattle-lifter has made his 

 home. For every tiger killed in this area a suitable reward might 

 be given, say R. 50, with the larger reward to be paid to the 

 sportsman who bagged the particular man-eater or cattle-lifter 

 prescribed. This would probably be the best method, since it 

 would tempt sportsmen to have a try for the man-eatei', knowing 

 that they would receive a certain reward for each tiger killed, even 

 if they should not be lucky enough to kill the prescribed beast. 



VI. Some Suggestions for the Preservation op the Game of 

 THE Country in the Interests of the Game itself and 

 OF THE Sportsman. 



The maintenance of a proper head of a particular species on the 

 areas it affects in the countiy, i. e., in its own particular habitat, 



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