IV.THE DENIZENS OF THE JUNGLE.
Illustrated letter
SALIGOORI—the lowermost station at the foot of the Himalayas—gives one the first insight into the real Indian jungle, the habitat of the far-famed Bengal tigers and still more dreadful cobra, besides leopards, cheetahs, hyænas, wolves, foxes, and jackals, which, with the wild hog, are reckoned the “big game,” which both natives and Europeans chase for pastime.
The tiger, being the noblest, has the first claim—beingthecharacteristic beast of prey in India. The Bengal tiger is certainly the finest of all mammals—its average length from the point of his nose to the tip of his tail being twelve feet.
In many districts the natives consider the tiger as a sort of protection to their crops, which it saves from destruction by the wild animals on which he feeds. But when once he develops a taste for human blood, the slaughter he works becomes truly formidable. The confirmed man-eater is generally an old beast, disabled from overtaking his usual prey, and seems to accumulate his tale of victims in sheer cruelty rather than for food. A single tiger, now in the Zoological Gardens at Alipore (Calcutta), is known to have killed 108 persons in the course of three years. He was at last trapped, and cagedin the Zoo, and is by far the finest specimen of the species I have ever seen.
Many instances are recorded of even more frightful depredations. In the hills, 13 villages were abandoned, and 250 square miles of country thrown out of cultivation; in 1869, one of these dreadful animals killed 137 people and stopped all traffic on a main public road for several weeks, until the opportune arrival of an English sportsman, who killed him.
Official records are kept of such matters. In 1877, 819 persons and 16,137 head of cattle were reported to have been killed by tigers; on the other hand, 1579 tigers were destroyed by native hunters, and £3777 paid in rewards, besides those killed by European sportsmen.
The leopard and cheetah are smaller and less dangerous to life. The latter is often tamed for hunting purposes, as I shall explain anon.
The wolf, fox, jackal, and hyæna limit their depredations to flocks or children, but being of a timid nature, are easily kept at bay.
The serpent tribe in India is numerous. They actually swarm in gardens, and often intrude into the dwellings of the inhabitants, principally during the rainy season. Certainly the majority are harmless, but the bite of others is speedily fatal. The most to be dreaded is the cobra-de-capello, or hooded snake. It seldom exceeds three or four feet in length, and is about an inch and a quarter thick. The Rupelian snake—about four feet long—is another whose bite is almost instantaneous death. Sir Joseph Fraser states that no antidote has yet been discovered to cure the bite of either of these horrible reptiles.
The loss of life from snake bites in India is painful to contemplate, but the extermination of snakes is attended with grave difficulties—from their great number, the character of the country, the rapid undergrowth of the jungle; and, above all, the scruples of the majority of the people, whom caste prevents from destroying life.
Something, however, has been effected by the offer of rewards. In 1877 a total of 16,777 persons are reported as having died from snake-bites, while £811 was paid for the destruction of 127,295 snakes!
The last census of the Indian Empire shows a population of 252,451,210, and this may be accepted as a minimum, owing to the great difficulty existing in obtaining exact returns. Many of the natives evince a great reluctance at giving the true number of their family. The density of the population may be appreciated when a comparison is drawn from the following figures:—France has 180 people to the square mile, England 200, whilst in Bengal the population reaches the enormous number of 1280 persons to each cultivated square mile. The Famine Commissioners in 1880 reported that over six millions of the peasant holdings of Bengal—or two-thirds of the whole—averaged from two to three acres a-piece. Allowing for women and children, this represents a population of about 24,000,000 struggling to live off 15,000,000 acres—or just half-an-acre a-piece.
Unlike other countries, India has few large towns, and no manufacturing centres. In England, for instance, 42 per cent.—or nearly one half of the population—live in towns, with upwards of 20,000 inhabitants; whilst in Indiabarely 4 per cent.—or not a twentieth of the people—live in towns. India is entirely a rural country.
We see, therefore, in India, a dense population of farmers. Wherever their number exceeds one to the acre—or 640 to the square mile—the struggle for existence becomes a hard task; at half-an-acre a-piece (and it is often so), that struggle is very hard indeed. When a crop fails the Government has a bad time of it to feed the starving millions. Disease and death in such periods, amongst underfed people, is simply horrible.
The opening up of lines of railway throughout this vast empire, now enables the Governments to alleviate the dreadful effects of over-population, and relieve the distress. Still, the fact remains that since the establishment of British rule in India the population has increased materially. The census of 1872 shows an increase of 240,000; the production of the soil being stationary, the future becomes problematical.