THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF THE WILD BEASTS IN INDIA.
THE official returns which show the annual destruction of life in India by wild beasts and reptiles always produce a painful impression. The bill of mortality from these sources presents a total of not less than five-and-twenty thousand human beings, which is rather under than over the actual amount. But the returns of registered fatal casualties do not cover the whole of India, for in an area inhabited by tiro-ninths of the population, no registers are kept. If they were, the total would be increased, and the roughly ascertained proportion of deaths to population would certainly be maintained. What we know is, that out of two hundred millions, using round numbers, five-and-twenty thousand are annually killed. In addition, to take a specific example, the savage creatures slew
more than sixty thousand head of cattle in 1887 ; what pro- portion this number bore to the total existing over such a wide area cannot be known ; but wherever it occurred, the effect was severe loss to the cultivator. This slaughter of men and cattle goes on continuously; the tables show that the annual amount varies, but that the average remains pretty constant, and that the rewards offered and paid by the Government do not diminish the volume of death.
How does it happen ? Why are the figures so large ? What can be done to prevent it ? These are questions which can be partially but not wholly answered. The loss recorded happens because the country swarms with wild animals, and still more with venomous snakes, and because many of the people who suffer will not heartily co-operate in any attempts to keep down their various foes. The real deadly enemy is the snake. He slays annually from nineteen to twenty-two thousand persons, or six-sevenths of the whole destroyed. Compared with the reptiles, the quadrupeds—tigers, leopards, wolves, bears, hyaenas, boars, buffaloes, jackals, crocodiles—are slight offenders, for their victims have not in any year reached three thousand. Moreover, while some of the beasts are rare throughout extensive areas, finding their domain in the forest, the jungle, the swamp, and the rocky hills, as well as in the cultivated tracts, the snake is literally everywhere. He permeates the-land from end to end, nestles in the habitations of men, haunts the cities, roams through the field and garden, and, in many cases, he is a favoured, in some a welcome guest, the old serpent-worship still surviving in shadowy forms, and the superstitious dread of the uncanny creature being even more widely felt. It is because the snake is at home among the people that he is able to kill his thousands, albeit in self-defence ; for there seems to be only one Indian serpent which actively assails and fiercely charges man,—the terrible " Ophiophagus Elaps." For the snakes, with the exception named, ever escape if they can, and only rise and strike when suddenly pressed or cut off. At a touch they turn and smite ; the touch may come from a naked foot moving in the grass, or the movement of a body awakening from sleep, or in a dozen other ways ; and the wonder is that the casualties are not more numerous, seeing that the native has no protection on his limbs. The reptiles are not aggressive, and the loss of life they inflict is, in some sort, accidental. " Snakes have always seemed to me averse to striking," says Mr. Weir Mitchell, " and they have on the whole been much maligned." Perhaps ; yet the death-roll of India points to the grim fact that they are the greatest homicides of any among the living creatures of that vast dominion. How the plague can be lessened is another question. The rattlesnake has nearly disappeared from the Eastern States of America, and the hog, in Florida, is gradually extirpating the snakes ; but the cobra family flourish throughout India, more or less, close to, if not actually within, the limits of thickly populated cities, while other deadly creatures abound. Considering the nature of the country, the thick vegetation, the rocks and hills and waste places, even the village huts, all supplying suitable cover and breeding-places, it does not seem likely that the reptiles will be very greatly reduced, much less made rare, within any moderate period of time. Yet if no effective mode of dealing with them can be devised, nor any remedy against snake-poison discovered, the yearly life-tax which they levy will be paid, and its awful total will constitute the bulk of the death-tables, in which the European resident rarely figures. Indeed, he suffers more from scorpions and bees, who also can slay, than from snakes ; and we fear that the native can only attain approximately to a like immunity by waging that watchful and relentless war on his destroyers in which at present he is by no means inclined to engage.
Much has been, and more may be done, to reduce the number killed by wild beasts, although here, again, the native is often reluctant to aid. His principal enemies are the tiger and the leopard, but the tiger must become a "man-eater" before he rouses deadly hostility. Between them, these two " eats " slay annually more than fifty thousand cattle, and twelve hundred persons, the vast majority of the latter falling victims to the tiger. Yet he is not a brave beast, rarely charging except when wounded, and always, when in pursuit of human prey, having recourse to a stealthy attack. The wild boar, one of the most courageous of animals, and the buffalo bull will fight, and have been known to kill him. In fact, he springs upon the straggling cattle, and, if a man- eater, on the solitary wayfarer or labourer. Nor is he easily trapped or slain by the hunter. " Hindoos," writes Sir James Fayrer, " especially hold the tiger in superstitious awe ; many would not kill him if they could; nor are they always willing to show where he is to be found, even when he has been killing their comrades and their cattle, from fear that he may haunt them or do them mischief, even when he is dead." So Lieutenant Rice, in his excellent tiger-hunting book, says : —" Many sects consider the tiger rather a sacred beast than otherwise, and would only wish to have them de- stroyed in the event of the tiger becoming a man-eater,— a breach of faith towards his worshippers," as he quaintly puts it, "not to be pardoned. This is the same sort of religious feeling, originating in dread, that causes the natives not to molest the most venomous snakes." The cunning of the quadruped and the spiritual terrors of the biped, account to a great extent for the fact that com- paratively so few tigers are killed. The leopard slays far fewer men, though not much fewer cattle, but he is very destructive. He is a fearless beast, although Mr. Spencer Perceval met one, face to face, up the Yangtze which turned tail before a cry of " Yoicks ! " Next to these " cats "—the lion does not count—the wolves and bears are the greatest offenders ; the wolves run off with children for food ; the bears, in the larger number of instances, simply kill or wound the natives who stumble on their haunts, but sometimes the bear is the aggressor and devours his prey. It is odd to find the carrion- loving jackal and the sneaking hyaena among the man-slayers; the probable explanation is that they fall upon infants and old people ; but the total looks very large. The crocodile is a considerable contributor to the list of deaths, and he, at all events, like the shark, is pursued with some effect. Yet, as we have seen, the mighty array of wild beasts, for whom it is pleaded that they must find prey in order to live, are only responsible for one tithe of the homicide in India, the great destructive agent being the venom of the crawling snake.
As the people all over India seem to be more or less indif- ferent, the task of reducing the mortality of men and cattle is not one easily performed. Would it be possible to effect an appreciable improvement by official means P At present, the Government of India passes resolutions and offers rewards. The resolutions recognise and deplore the evil ; the rewards do operate to some extent upon the native hunters ; yet for seven years there has been no alteration in the average of recorded loss. The root of the evil lies in the indifference of the swarming multitude. " Government aid is needed," writes Sir James Fayrer, " but the people should bestir themselves and rely more on their own resources, for the evil cannot be stayed whilst they are apathetic and the predaceous animals abound." Still less can the plague of snakes be lessened. Naturally, the first suggestion that occurs to an Anglo-Indian mind is a " Department ;" but, so far, the highest authorities have not welcomed the proposal, contenting themselves with sanctioning the system of rewards. Sir James Fayrer advocates the establishment of a systematic agency applied to the whole country, working with the provincial and local bodies, and steadily conducted. " Ample means exist, if called for," he says, " for constituting such a Department, and if it were entrusted to a selected officer, as in the case of the Dacoity and Thuggee Departments, it is probable that in a few years the results would be as good in respect of noxious animals as it has been in respect of Thugs and dacoits." No one can doubt that the agents could be easily found, nor that a series of well-planned campaigns against the beasts would diminish their numbers ; but in order to make an impression on the dreadful aggregate of death, the Department would have to form a powerful Snake section, and, moreover, enlist the people in the daily. warfare, and success in that direction would mean a revolution in Oriental ideas. At present, the native is proof against what are usually the strongest motives,— preservation of life and property. The tiger and leopard eat his cattle and himself ; the bear and wild boar assault him ; the wolf, the hyaena, and even the paltry jackal lie in wait for his children and old folks ; the crocodile seizes him as he bathes or crosses a water-course ; and, above all, the snake, in his many shapes, strikes him mortally every hour. If such powerful incentives to defensive and offensive exertion fail to stir the multitude, some, yet not very much, hope can be placed in the awakening influence of a Government Department.
Previous page
