I was looking through a search on hunting in India and found this review of the book "Wild & Beautiful".

What do you think of the comments?



Part of the review by S. THEODORE BASKARAN

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The book basically consists of nine chapters on varied topics such as the dhole, the tiger, the elephant, the lion, the tahr, the goral and the mahseer. ...........

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WHAT pulls down the book are the pages devoted to Jim Corbett. And the title. The title serves as a window to what a book contains and many a good book has been discounted by its title. Why On Jim Corbett's Trail? What is the relevance? The author has devoted two chapters to Corbett and both make tedious reading.

Jim Corbett glamorised and popularised tiger hunting by accompanying dignitaries in their tiger pursuit. During the British Raj, tiger hunts became a bizarre ritual - often with Corbett as the chief priest - in which the predator became the prey. Long before big game hunters set foot in Africa, these nimrods were shooting tigers by the thousands in India. Not just the tiger but anything that showed up in the jungle, from the giant squirrel to the elephant, was shot. Johnsingh himself recounts an incident in which Corbett shot three gorals one after another. There were detailed how-to-do-it manuals on hunting. Brown sahibs followed their white sahibs and hunting acquired a snob value, quite like golf. After Independence, Corbett moved over to Africa and continued his profession there.

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SHIKAR literature came out at a time when there was very little awareness about wildlife and forests. Now the situation has changed dramatically and we know that there was much yarn in this literature. Even when these books were published there were sceptical voices. Shikar literature may still sell, rather like Ian Fleming's novels. We have wildlife biologists now so why invoke the names of the Jim Corbetts and Kenneth Andersons? For those who still have the Corbett fixation, I recommend the chapter `Slouching from Kumaon' in the book Forster and Further (Orient Longman, 1993) by Sujit Mukherjee. It is unfortunate that while Corbett's contemporary W.H. Champion, a professional forester who formulated working plans, popularised wildlife photography and preached conservation, and Hugo Wood, who saved the Anamalai forests (Indira Gandhi National Park), have been forgotten, a national park has been named after Corbett.

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Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Johnsingh himself supports hunting and cites the United States, South Africa and Zimbabwe where it has been used for conservation. "India, however, has neglected this aspect of wildlife management," he says. It would be a matter of deep concern if a wildlife biologist believes that hunting could help conservation. Has not that myth been exploded long back? We now know that hunting accounted for 25 per cent of extinctions.

In the history of conservation not a single species has been saved by hunting. On the other hand, the list of species shot out of existence is long. The gaur was wiped out of the Javadhi hills (Tamil Nadu) mainly by trophy hunters. In India, hunters have pushed many creatures, such as the lion, the tahr and the grey jungle fowl to the brink of extinction. Which species is in such abundance as to be subjected to hunting?

In post-Independence India, a new brand of hunter appeared, who, unfamiliar with wildlife, could not tell a stag from a doe. Indifferent to seasons, he shot anything that moved in the forest. Large-scale carnage followed until we almost lost the tiger, along with other animals such as the tahr. Shooting by the armed forces in remote areas added to the decline of endangered species. Salim Ali once found the feathers of the Great Indian Bustard in an army mess in Kutch and protested against it.

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