Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-12-22
Death In the Jungle.

VOWED in these remarkable columns OF
statistics. We are accustomed to read
Of isolated cases Of the destruction of
few hunters in the Jungle by tigers or ele-
plants but here we have a record show
ing that in the war between men and
wild beasts, the men have, to great ex-
tent, not only the worst of the contest,
but the beasts follow up their victory
until man-eating tiger creates such ter
ror in district that "Nhole villages are
depopulated, public roads and thorough
fares are rendered literally unapproach-
able by human beings even in broad day
light, and thousands of acres of once
cultivated land are entirely deserted and
consigned to the growth of vegetation,
to offer in their turn safe coverts to these
noxious animals" The government, Of
course, has not been idle. Various means
have been devised to mitigate the pest,
but with comparatively little success, as
the figures we are about to quote will
prove. The aggregate number of deaths
by the onslaught of wild beasts through
out the provinces of Madras, Bombay,
Bengal, the Northwestern Provinces,
Punjab, Oudh, Central Provinces, Courg,
Hyderabad and British Burman, for
three years, amounts to 1854. The
deaths from snake-bite, over the same area
come up TO 25,664. So that from born
causes there is huge total of mortality
scoring 1928 persons who have come
to violent or lingering end in what to
US seems strange fashion. 1t is not
necessary or desirable perhaps, to dwell
upon the nature Of the pain and fright
which must seize the victim who is drag
ged down to be the prey of the tiger, or
who is wounded by the deadly fangs of
The cobra serpent. DIR. Livingstone has
told us that when lion seized him, the
shake which the creature gave him, like
that which the cat gives to a mouse.
seemed to kill within him the very sense
of danger or fear, so that he remained
passive, though not unconscious, in its
grasp. But, on the other hand, we have
only to glance into the stories of the In
dian hunters, to find tales of the swoop
Of the tiger on native, and then plunge
with the shrieking quarry into the forest,
which gives the most convincing proof
that not to every one does death in this
dreadful manner come as calmly as it
seemed to be approaching DIR. Living
stone.
But are there not hunters, mighty
hunters, in India? The army of Shik-
arees is in truth entirely insufficient to
cope with its antagonists. The govern
nent gives large rewards for the destruc-
ton of the terrible game, the bagging of
which is a very different matter indeed
from the performances at the Norfolk
eovets, or on the Scotch moors But the
natives are not courageous enough to
battle determedly and effectively against
their quadruped enemies. 1t is only the
odd Englishman who can protect them,
and to whom village, tiger-ridden, SO to
speak, will appeal to be rid of their OPP
pressor, who, very like the dragon Of old,
must be fed on man-meat, and helps him.
self to the fare almost wherever he feels
the stimulous of appetite. The natives
are cowardly enough o fly in large num-
bers from the district in which even one
of these ferocious beasts happens to be
abroad. The Bombay Gazette says
I'VE are repeatedly having brought un-
der our notice the fact of tiger coming
down on a village and carrying off one
after another of the inhabitants In a
document published by the authority of
the government, we find it stated that
though in certain cultivated districts the
more dangerous species of wild animals
nave become rare, the lower provinces
Of Bengal exhibit state of things cali
ed for serious consideration. 1t is said,
in the paper to which we refer, that the
mortality "could be very largely reduced
by the extirpation of the animals in the
ueighborhood of human habitations." 1"
The remark carries with it an over-ob-
vious truth. The tiger is the difficulty,
and how to abolish or destroy him is the
problem to be taken in hand. The gov
ernment advise the people to kill him,
which is not such bad plan if there
we're less risk and Inconvenience in car
rying it out. In 1868 Captain Rogers
produced scheme for the destruction of
wild beasts, consisting of spring-gun
contrivance, which was to be laid in the
path or near the haunts of the animals.
But it turned out that the tigers avoided
The trap, and the domestic bullocks and
other tame beasts did not, so that Cap
tain Rogers notion after time became
unpopular. The same gentleman at
tempted to organize regular bands of
Shikarees, or hunters, with jemadars over
them, and a supply of guns and ammu-
t.