Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — Unresisting Prey to Tigers. [ARTICLE]

Unresisting Prey to Tigers.

There are some unfortunate Indian villagers who appear to live all their lives in constant peril. On the one hand stands the man-eating tiger; on the other the .Arms act warns them to beware of acquiring lethal weapons. They have nothing for it, therefore, but to trust everything to official protection, and this, it appears, sometimes proves anything but a safeguard. Only the other day the miserable inhabitants of Anami, a hamlet in Bengal, implored the Lieutenant Governor to take action before they were gobbled up. A particularly hungry tiger had established itself close to the village, and almost every day witnessed a fresh outrage. At one time, the beast showed a preference for cattle, and the milky mothers of the herd had their ranks thinned. But this kind of fare required to have its monotony relieved at intervals by the substitution of “long pork,” with the result of some inhabitant becoming acquainted with the digestive tigrine apparatus. The villagers were quite willing to make war upon their striped foe; at least they professed to be. But they possessed no arms, that being forbidden by law, while the state did not attempt to afford them any protection beyond the general offer of rewards for tiger killing. Similar cases are by no means uncommon; they often come to light ic the native papers, by which they are adduced as arguments for the abrogation of the Arms Act. That remedy would be far worse than the disease; if all the people in Indian were allowed to carry deadly weapon* there would be no end to battle, murder and sudden death. Efficient state protection is the proper remedy for an evil which would scarcely exist at all but for the interference of the state with the liberty of the subject. Perhaps the Indian Civil Service examination will hereafter include some tests of sporting prowess; it is a much more necessary kind of education than many of the subjects whict are taken up