MORTALITY FROM WILD BEASTS IN INDIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1490, 17 March 1885, Page 3

MORTALITY FROM WILD BEASTS IN INDIA.

The annual bill of mortality from wild beasts in British India for 1883, and the number of the marauders killed in that year, have just been i üblished. All the . figures are higher than those for 1882. It is a reality little short of appalling that ' 22,905 human beings should have lost 1 their lives in 1883 through wild beasts ; ' and that 47,478 cattle and 12,947 sheep and goats should have gone to fill the maws of the same animals. Snakes bear the odium of 20,067, or 88 per cent, of the total number of human deaths; tigers coming next, longo intervallo, with 985, or 4 per cent. Uf the cattle destroyed, 75 per cent, have gone to tigers and leopards, the latter having been a great deal the worst offenders. are the next worst, accounting for 14 per cent. Very nearly one-half of the human deaths occurred in Bengal proper, and almost entirely from snake bight. It would be very interesting to know how many of these were women, as there is strong suspicion entertained, by many who know the country aid its ways, that a vast deal of the mortality among faithless or troublesome wives is unjustly recorded against the snakes. Turning to the other side of the account we find that 19,890 wild animals and 412,782 snakes were destroyed during the year 1883 ; and that no less a sum than 1 74,386 rupees was paid away in rewards. The vast majority (71 per cent) of the snakes destroyed were killed in Bombay ; while not one is reported from Madras, where probably rewards are not given in this branch of industry. The amount of *ihe Government reward given for the destruction of a wild animal appears to vary strangely in the different parts of India In Madras, where no snakes were paid ( for and only 2,708 head of other animals, 64,136 rupees, or nearly 24 rupees per ' head, was distributed in rewards ; while ' in Bengal, with a roll of 38,856 snakes and 5,663 other animals destroyed, only < 27,976 rupees, or less than 3 rupees 12 t annas a head (excluding snakes), rewarded ' the slayers. In Assam the destruction of 703 animals (excluding snakes) cost the t State 10,842 rupees, or nearly 15 8 rujpees per head. In the Central Provinces the head money on destructive quadrupeds averages 12 rupees, whereas in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh it is as low as 2*lo rupees.