636 
THE TROPICAL AGEICULTURIST. 
[March 1, I90i- 
THE EXrEliMINATEON OF WILD 
ANIMALS IN INDIA. 
The qneslion wliicli is often laified in these 
days, regarding tiie exieniiinatioii of wilil animals 
in the sliootin<^ grounds of Lhe woiM, admits in 
India, at least, of being examined, to some ex- 
tent, by tiie light of statistics. Statistics are 
proverbially capiicious things to deal with, and, 
unfortunately the records I hnve at my disposal 
only go back to 1883, but they may iielp us a 
little. Let us connnence ilien with that uionracri 
of Indian big gam<», the tiger. The number of 
tigers destroyed and persons killed by tigers since 
1885 is as follows :— 
Tigers 
Persons 
destroyed. 
killed. 
1885 
1,355 
838 
]886 
1,461 
928 
1887 
1,408 
1,063 
18S8 
1,473 
1,312 
975 
1889 
985 
1890 
1,276 
798 
1891 
1,293 
979 
1892 
1,323 
947 
1893 
1,267 
969 
1894 
1,311 
864 
1895 
1.381 
909 
1896 
1,502 
944 
1897 
1,.569 
l,07i 
1898 
1,257 
927 
1899 
1,570 , 
899 
The foiegoing ligures, itshou'd bj observed, deal 
witii Maiiras, Uombay, Bengal, tlie N.-W. Pro- 
vinces and Oudh, the Punjab, Burniah, the Central 
Provinces, Assam, Coorg, Banga'ore, Hyderabad 
Assigned Districts, and Ajmere Miirwara. They 
consequently furnish no data regarding Mysore 
or the Native State of Hy erabad, nor of otlier 
tiger districts, which, tiiough not so important 
as the two here mentioned, must certainly be re- 
garded as factors of gie.it weight in influencing 
our general conclusion. If we break up the totals 
for the whole of Biitisli India into Provincial 
totals, Ave obtain the following figures: — 
TIGEKS DlvSTROVED. 
Pi a . j3 
cq B " fi4 pq o <1 <^ opq § « W 
674 83 12 83 221 347 4 9 266 122 34 
245 74 4 121 253 436 4 4 209 97 17 
269 99 4 120 222 438 7 9 149 72 19 
376 100 1 74 315 323 6 6 203 57 12 
318 83 3 76 231 337 2 12 175 49 26 
275 85 — 76 208 384 2 6 150 72 18 
239 106 4 87 347 377 6 12 137 49 29 
256 69 5 121 274 343 — 10 1.50 68 27 
236 73 11 133 207 367 5 6 132 82 15 
271 66 3 141 361 356 1 6 141 49 16 
336 77 12 152 225 360 4 6 116 54 39 
361 96 15 171 323 353 — 6 105 43 29 
546 121 4 173 222 387 2 3 110 22 29 
292 112 1 200 262 293 2 1 102 44 48 
356 108 5 233 233 411 1 5 129 51 38 
The only deduction to be drawn from these figures 
is lliat frotn 1885 onwards there has been no 
apparent dimiuation, nothing worth speaking about, 
in the number of tigers available for killing. In 
1885 Bengal, Madras and Bomb xy returned figures 
■which they have never reached since, but in the 
Nortli West, in Burmah, in the Central Provinces, 
in Assam, and Assigned Districts, a full table of 
tigers always seems to be forthcoming. Tiie Bur- 
mah figures are, perhaps, a little niialeading. Up 
to 1890 the returns apparently date with Lower 
Burmali only ; since that date the whole of Bur 
mah has fallen under the intelligent classiHcaiion 
of the Statistical Department. Hence tlie.se 
tigers Tliougii in B-ngal G74 ti^^crs were killed 
in 188."), coiisitlerable circumspection is required 
in deibng with this total ; lor the very next year, 
the Pioviiicial bag dropped to 245, and 
indeed, from the shikari point of view the 
three years following IS85 were nothing like as 
gooil as 1897, and 1898, and 1899. It must aLsobe 
insisted on that in the last three years of the series 
more persons were killed by tigers than in llic 
lust three, a"d after all said and done I sup- 
I)ose nobody will teriously maintain the doctrine 
that men should die so that ti<,'ers may be kept 
ahve. Personally I can't see that India would 
be any worse off' if there wasn't a tiger in the 
country. So far as leopards, bears, wolves, hyena.s, 
and other wild bea.-<ts are concerned, the num- 
bers lecorded as liaving been killed since 1885 
hardly lead to the conclusion that the stock is 
diminishing. Hyenas and wolves, perhaps, are 
the exceptions. The figui-es for 1885, 18&6, and 
1899 are here given : — 
Leopards. Bears. Wolves. Hyenas. Oiher 
. , wild beasts. 
18S5... 5,466 1,874 6,278 2 238 5959 
1886... 4,051 1,668 6,725 1,630 6 852 
1899... 4,548 1,585 2,357 776 7',989 
Matters far more serious for India than the ex- 
tinction of beasts of prey, however much their 
disappearance might be made the theme of la- 
mentations from sportsmen, are the everlasting 
slaughter that goes on among deer, the luthle.ss 
destruction of Indian wild birds, and the deteriora- 
tion and diminution of agricultural Stock. 
„. . T ,■ Sambhur. 
—Times of Indui, 
THE INDIAN TEA CROP, 1900. 
In September last the Indian Tea Association 
gave an estimate of the outturn of the present 
season's crop of Indian tea showing a total of 
182,144,874 1b. 
The Association now give the following figures 
showing the actual outturn of the crop : — 
Assam .. „. 67,928,770 
tJachar .. ,. 27,299,230 
Sylhet .. ... ... 33,854,808 
DarjihDg .. .. .. 7,474,098 
^erar ... .. .. 3,378,075 
Diars .. ,. ,., 29,997,065 
Chittagoirg .. .. 1,065,300 
ChotaNagpur .. .. ., 185,089 
KaDgra Valley., ... ... 3,000,000 
DehraDun ... ,. .. 1,785,000 
Kumaon (estimated) . . , . 300,000 
Gardens from which no returns 
have been received, indading 
Private and Native gardens 
(estimate) .. ... .. 11,260,000 
Total ..187,527,435 
1 he outturn from the Duars district shows an 
excess of rather more than 7,000,000 lb. over tlie 
estimate of September last. This excess is, to a 
large extent, an apparent one only. Owing to in- 
complete returns it was necessary when framing 
the estimate to include about 5,000,000 lb. of 
tea under the general heading of " Gardens from 
which no returns have been received," This quan- 
tity has now been accounted for by the final re- 
turns from Duars gardens and is deducted from 
the estimate of 16,168,000 lb. for " Gardens from 
which no returns have been received," 
