/501

Statement of Objects and Reasons.-The slaughter of wild elephants, chiefly of males, whose tusks have reached a marketable size, but in some localities of both males and females, is being extensively practised in British Burma. To prevent this wholesale and indiscriminate destruction-which, if unchecked, must ultimately lead to the extinction of the breed,-the present Bill has been framed.

The provisions of this Bill are very similar to those of Madras Act 1 of 1873, from which it differs more in form and arrangement than in substance. In common with the Madras Act, it prohibits under penalty, the destruction of wild elephants, except in certain cases, and it provides for the grant of licenses for shooting wild male elephants upon waste or forest lands the property of Government, and for the making of rules as to the grant and renewal of such licenses.

It differs, however, from the Madras Act in omitting the provision of that Act permitting the destruction of wild male elephants upon private waste or forest lands, as there are no private proprietors of forest land in British Burma, and where waste lands have been granted there are no elephants.

[22nd March, 1879]

An Act for the preservation of wild elephants.

This Act has been declared to be in force in the Angul District by the Angul Laws Regulation, 1936 (5 of 1936).

It has been amended in its application to Bengal by the Elephants' Preservation (Bengal Amendment) Act, 1932 (Ben. 5 of 1932), and in its application to the district of Sambalpur and Agency tracts of Ganjam and Koraput by the Elephants' Preservation (Amendment) Regulation, 1938 (Orissa Regn. 1 of 1938) and Assam by Assam Act 14 of 1959.

The Act has been extended to the NEFA Area with modifications by Regn. 1 of 1962.