Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1908 — Victims of Beasts in India. [ARTICLE]

Victims of Beasts in India.

Year by year records are published of the destruction of human and cattle life by the wild beasts and snakes of British India. Last year 24,576 human beings and 96,226 cattle were killed, and of the people, 21,827 deaths were attributed to snakes, whHe to the cattle, 86,000 were killed by wild beasts, panthers being charged with 40,000 and tige-s with 30,000 of this, total; snakes accounted for 10,000. And this is but a trifling percentage of the actual annual mortality, as *tt excludes the feudatory states with their 700,000 square miles and 6,000,000 inhabitants, where no records ar? obtalnab'e. Nor do the fatalities grow materially less, notwithstanding the efforts of sportsmen and rewards by government, because the development of railways and roads, as the jungle Is reclaimed for ag’ ’culture, means continuous invasion of the snake and tigerinfested territory.—Outing.