The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-06-16
Deaths from Wild Beasts In India.

Deaths from Wild Beasts In India.
It has been reckoned that at least ten
thousand people die every year in India
of snake bites. The new plan of inject
inc ammonia into the wounds may tend
! to diminish the number of deaths from
snake bites. if it succeeds in India as well
as it has in Australia; but the havoc
caused by tigers, leOpards and other wild
| beasts, if not greater in fact than it was
| some years ago, has at any rate been seri-
Gus enough to draw from Lord Mayo a
| demand tor help on the part Of the local
| governments in devising measures TO abate
| the evil
Man eating tigers are the special terror
Of the countryside. The taste for human
| flesh either grows with indulgence, or be-
comes last resource of tigers of advanced
| age, whose energies are ne 'ongcr equal TO
the demands of their appetite. We had
| always imagined that til latter was the
true way of accounting for the ravages OF
| the man eating" class, aIl the NANCY
appearance for which they are remarkable
| 1t is certainly a curious fact that ne tigers
| in the Oudh Jungle seldom prey on man,
being plentifully supplied with wild pig
and other large game. There, too, they
with Ldtties, or iron bound sticks, often
drive them away from their own cattle. a
driver of mail-cart will also scare
them away by merely sounding his
bugle Elsewhere, however, they are
either bOlder or have less choice of food.
In the central provinces it is thing of
yearly occurrence to hear that a man eater
has posted himself near some district
thOroughfare, whence ne falls on unwary
travellers and tOiling peasants, until en-
bOldened by practice, he even carries Oft
his prey from within the village enclosures.
In the Chanda district alone one of these
brutes killed in short time 1877 people,
and stopped all traffic for many weeks on
the road from Mooll to Chanda A IT,
gress in Chindwarrah slew, according to
native estimates, $50 people in three years,
causing the abandonment of the villages,
and throwing $50 square miles out of culti-
vatiOn. Another Old tigress in Kurnool
carried off sixty fOnr human beings within
nine months, stopped the post-runners and
police patrols, and scared away the labor
ers employed on public works. One of
his victims was the head constable. The
brutc's average allowance seemed to have
been one man every three days. 1t was
only by keeping together in numbers and
making horrible noise with "tomtoms
that travellers could safely pass that way.
At last broad strip of jungle was cleared
away from either side of the road, and in
due time the beast was hunted down.
In the Bhagalpore District alone of
Lower Bengal as many as ,434 people
were killed by wild beasts in six years.
During the same period 13,401 deaths from
wild beasts were reported tor Bengal
Proper, of which APIS are ascribed to IT,
gers, 1,407 to leopards, 4,2S7 to wolves,
IA to Hyenas, and 105 to bears, the
balance being set down to bOars, jackals,
buiIaloes, elephants and mad dogs. On
the other hand, it cost the government
sc, 800 in rewards to secure the destruc-
ton in the same time of IS, 1876 wild beasts,
of whom 1,21S were tigers, 1868 leOpards,
1871 bears, and /, ,33S wolves. In one
year the loss of human life in the Central
Provinces amounted to sos, many of
whom were children, while 5lS tigers, $50
panthers and leOpards, 534 bears, 467
wolves and hyenas were put to death.
The wolves of Oudh in the same year
killed five men, two women, seventy-twO
boys and eighty girls Each Of the other
provinces adds its quota to the butchers
bill OF the number of cattle slain and
of the loss entailed upon their poor own
ers no regular estimate can be formed
but one man alone in South Canara com
planned Of having lost fifty head of cattle
through wild beasts. Captain Rogers
tells of tiger who killed a half a dozen
in IA few minutes, and it is well known
that thousands of villagers are continually
reduced to poverty, followed by a
long term of bondage to money
lenders, through the ravages of these un
pleasant neighbOrs. The very spread
of cultivation tends TO increase the
suffering caused by their neighborhood.
In the Neilgherries, for instance, the clear
ing sway OF jungle for coffee plantations
drives the wild animals to seek their prey
from the villages at the foot Of the hills.
On the other hand, the planting of new
and the conservation of old forests may
afford new haunts or new means of living
To the beasts OF prey. Superstition also
plays no small part in the maintenance OF
these lntOlerable scOurgcS. The Gonds,
for instance, instead of mastering in force
to hunt down the tigers who wage war
against them and their herds, have an
idiotic way of regarding the tiger as a d-
vinity whose wrath it is unsafe to arouse.
If one of them falls prey to the appetite
for human flesh, the rest of the family are
forthwith tabooed as dlspleasing to the OBJ
icct of their rcverent dread, and must ex-
plate their offence by costly sacrifices,
which may leave them pennilcss but will
restore them to their caste e-rights.
The head money granted by govern
ment, To the tune of f15 900 year, tends,
no doubt, to keep The nuisance of wild
beasts in some check AS much as a hun
dred pounds has been given for the head
of a man n-eating tiger. But the rewards
are something granted on very slight evi-
dence for it is well known that cum
ming native will bring up an old head for
"a new one, or sew tigers skin over the
head of some smaller animal, and thus
cheat credulous or careless official into
passing an unfounded claim.-ANen's In
dian lNGL