14 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



A certain amount of harm is done by native 

 shikaris, and occasionally by subordinates in 

 Government employ ; but these people cannot 

 afford, as a rule, the rifles necessary for the 

 killing of heavy game, so their attentions are 

 generally confined to potting an unwary deer 

 over a water-hole. I remember, however, in 

 Burma once meeting a subordinate in the Public 

 Works Department who informed me that he 

 knew of the whereabouts of a herd of bison, and 

 suggested that I should accompany him and 

 wipe out the lot ! He had already killed a cow 

 and wounded a bull from this very herd, and 

 was extremely pleased with his performance. 



In Burma, as in India, elephants are now 

 protected by a special Act, and it is illegal to 

 shoot them except in self-defence, or when 

 actually doing damage to cultivation. But it 

 is not difficult, I believe, to obtain permission 

 to kill one elephant, and in many parts of 

 Upper Burma during the latter part of the 

 rains elephants do so much damage to rice 

 cultivation that permission to go after a par- 

 ticular herd is readily granted by the local 

 authorities. Occasionally, in certain districts 

 where elephants have been doing constant 

 damage, the Elephant Act is treated as a dead 

 letter for the time being, permission being given 

 to all and sundry to drive the elephants from 

 that part of the district which has received 

 too much attention from their frequent visita- 



