Life After The Indian Hunting Ban

Dear Boss
I was using a 3006 for leopard and have shot 6 man-eating leopards with it
The next problem animal I see in India is the Elephant . Hence I have changed my 3006 with a 375 mag

For ELEPHANT and TIGER. The minimum calibre is a .375 mag and above. That is the LAW . You can not be issued a permit for elephant or tiger on a 3006 or a 12 bore . This law was there during the days of Shikar and still exists

India has almost twice the number of elephants than the holding capacity . Hence the next big problem we shall face is from these animals.
I come from a family of shikaris .
But I can assure you that there is no discrimination towards issue of licences based on casters creed or sex.
As mentioned earlier . The most famous shikaris in India Safath ( mislim) Lakhpat (Hindu) and Joy (Christian ) represent the secular fabric of my country

Sir,
What I understand till now:
There is limited legal hunting for nilgai and boar in some areas in India. (being problematic)
You are also mentioning overpopulation of elephant, and man eating big cats.

The question:
is there a way for foreigner to come to India for legal hunt of problematic animals?
 
Question….how common was it to use a macan in India when hunting at night..? Was it as common to find a suitable tree and wait it out from there..?
 
Pondoro
Macchans were relatively common for Shikar in India for large animals , even at night .

Even at night , IMHO also forced at night since no one can go down from a machan at night for safety reasons and walk around in the jungle. I think you should wait until the sunrise.
 
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Even at night , IMHO also forced at night since no one can go down from a machan at night for safety reasons and walk around in the jungle. I think you should wait until the sunrise.
Kurpfalzjager
You are clearly a man of experience . That is correct. Especially in old India . Imagine shooting a Sambar deer and going down to see an angry Royal Bengal tiger ?
 
The jungles in India have lots of trees when compared to the open grasslands of Africa
Machaans are preferred over hides on the ground.

Shikar elephants were extensively used here . Those who did not wish to stay on the machaan all night would ask the mahawat ( elephant handler) to come to the machaan at a particular time
I have used elephant while hunting the Motichur man-eater (leopard) . Elephants with their superb smelling power can sense a big cat well in advance .
They also give you a safe (though Shakey) platform to take a shot at the big cat
 
Dear Mark hunter
Initially when the ban on tiger hunting was imposed . A lot of Shikar Companies protested against it . One of my friend's father owned one such Shikar company called *Spots and Stripes *
As the name suggests . The company specialised in hunting leopards and tigers.

After the ban few companies continued to operate and organised bird shoots and small game for foreign clients
Occassionally there was a rogue elephant or a man-eating tiger to be taken by these foreign clients as well .
Mr Imam a professional hunter has described one such hunt where a lady from the USA shot a man-eating tiger . The name of the book is
BROWN HUNTER .

This was subsequently discontinued as the authorities felt that involving foreigners to hunt and the financial aspect associated with such a hunt . Might tempt the professional hunters to shoot the wrong animal

As on date . Culling is permitted for crop protection . Rogues and maneaters can be destroyed . But there is no way a foreign tourist can come to India and legally hunt .
 
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You will be surprised to know that once the animal is shot . You can not make a trophy out of it . The carcass has to be handed back to the department without a whisker or a claw missing . An autopsy is conducted by a panel of three veterinary doctors . The procedure is filmed after which the carcass is placed on a pyre , burnt and destroyed . This is done to prevent misuse of the body part and prevent smuggling across the border to China where there is high demand for the meat and bones
 
@PSRaghav
Thank you for explanation!

One more question:
Do you see any possibility of hunting regulations to be changed, to more positive ones, in the future?
Are there any individuals, politicians, groups, or companies lobbying in that direction in India?
 
The jungles in India have lots of trees when compared to the open grasslands of Africa
Machaans are preferred over hides on the ground.

Shikar elephants were extensively used here . Those who did not wish to stay on the machaan all night would ask the mahawat ( elephant handler) to come to the machaan at a particular time
I have used elephant while hunting the Motichur man-eater (leopard) . Elephants with their superb smelling power can sense a big cat well in advance .
They also give you a safe (though Shakey) platform to take a shot at the big cat

In the countries of Africa covered with forest you cannot hunt as many are accustomed to it in the open areas. There are also sometimes used a kind of machan. Otherwise you have to use dogs to track down the game.

Unfortunately , elephants cannot be used because the African elephant does not cooperate.
 
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Many of the maharadschas had so called "Tiger Towers".
Stonemade.
 

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In our modern times it is called "un-ethical", but back in that days...
(In history of mankind, the mahardschas has the most power of all ruler, presidents, kings, queens, pp. And money also.)
 

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Mark Hunter
Ever since I went on my African Safari
I have been an advocate of trophy hunting .
I strongly feel that Trophy Hunting contributes to conservation.
I have written articles and have also discussed the same with some senior forest officers
There is another gent whom I have not met yet. Mr H S Pabla IFS . He is a senior forest officer who has now retired . An advocate of Trophy Hunting as a means of conservation.
But unfortunately Hunters in India are a minority.

I have my own doubts if hunting will be reintroduced in the country .
 
Yes Bull Hunter
These monstrous constructions were usually built near water holes.
Else live bait was regular placed.
Once the tiger made a kill . The hunter would comfortably sit and wait for the big cat to return.
Unethical . Yes.
The animal had little chance .
But these were built a long time ago. When tiger was considered more of a vermin.
At the turn of the last century . There were an estimated fifty thousand (50000) tigers in India
 
Yes Bull Hunter
These monstrous constructions were usually built near water holes.
Else live bait was regular placed.
Once the tiger made a kill . The hunter would comfortably sit and wait for the big cat to return.
Unethical . Yes.
The animal had little chance .
But these were built a long time ago. When tiger was considered more of a vermin.
At the turn of the last century . There were an estimated fifty thousand (50000) tigers in India
I am not sure that I would term this hunting method "unethical". With the increasing bans on hunting leopards with hounds. I suspect in Africa 90% are taken over bait to which the cat is returning. I am not sure that it matters from an ethical perspective if the blind is permanent or temporary. And in those areas where these predators are mostly nocturnal, I am hesitant to say hunting at night is in any way unethical. Particularly in cattle country, it is probably better to hunt them in whatever manner is successful than simply lace the carcasses of their domesticated prey with poison which still happens for too often. And those of us who hunt deer in this country do so very often from blinds or high seats. In States where the terrain is extremely thick, they are often hunted over bait of one form or another. Ethics need to be appropriate to conditions and their point in history.

I gave up bow hunting many years ago, and so have no interest in hunting waterholes. But I would suspect fully 80% of game taken by bow hunters in Africa are taken at waterholes. Those conditions may or may not be "sporting", but they do create the situation where shots will be more likely to be accurate and quickly lethal. Perhaps that is where the greater ethic can be found. I suspect that might apply to a British sportsman visiting the Raj with the rifles of the day and hoping to cleanly take a tiger.

I am more than a little amazed that the density of these great cats was sufficient early in the last century that one could plan a hunt from such a tower with some regular expectation of success.
 
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I am not sure that I would term this hunting method "unethical". With the increasing bans on hunting leopards with hounds. I suspect in Africa 90% are taken over bait to which the cat is returning. I am not sure that it matters from an ethical perspective if the blind is permanent or temporary. And in those areas where these predators are mostly nocturnal, I am hesitant to say hunting at night is in any way unethical. Particularly in cattle country, it is probably better to hunt them in whatever manner is successful than simply lace the carcasses of their domesticated prey with poison which still happens for too often in cattle country. And those of us who hunt deer in this country do so very often from blinds or high seats. In States where the terrain is extremely thick, they are often hunted over bait of one form or another.

I gave up bow hunting many years ago, and so have no interest in hunting waterholes. But I would suspect fully 80% of game taken by bow hunters were taken at waterholes. Those conditions may or may not be "sporting", but they do create the situation where shots will be more likely to be accurate and quickly lethal. Perhaps that is where the greater ethic can be found.

I am more than s little amazed that the density of these great cats was sufficient early in the last century that one could plan a hunt from such a tower with some regular expectation of success.
Red Leg
I have the same view as you. In old India , tigers were rancid and very problematic . In the days when the Maharajas were unrestricted in their power , they would often hunt as many as five in a single day . An example of this recognized even in our time , was His Royal Excellence , the Maharaja of Bhopal who once took half a dozen Royal Bengal tigers in one day . What is even more impressive is that His Royal Excellence managed to accomplish this feat with a Holland and Holland mauser in a small calibre ( called the .240 Apex ) which was thought to be suicide , for 500 pound Royal Bengal tigers .
 
Sergeant Rahman you were fortunate to hunt in the era of electric torches (flashlights for my fellow Americans). In your father's day most high quality rifles were equipped with "moon sights" - usually a half-bead of ivory that could be flipped up to cover the normal finer front sight bead or post. The idea was to have an aiming point that could be seen in moonlight when firing at an animal over bait at night. I have a couple of period British rifles so equipped. I am curious if you ever saw that technique still in use during your period as a professional hunter.
 
Sergeant Rahman you were fortunate to hunt in the era of electric torches (flashlights for my fellow Americans). In your father's day most high quality rifles were equipped with "moon sights" - usually a half-bead of ivory that could be flipped up to cover the normal finer front sight bead or post. The idea was to have an aiming point that could be seen in moonlight when firing at an animal over bait at night. I have a couple of period British rifles so equipped. I am curious if you ever saw that technique still in use during your period as a professional hunter.
Red Leg
Why yes . These sights were also made with the tusks of boars ( as a more affordable variant ) . However,
, it went completely out of fashion in Darjeeling by 1964 , which was the last time when l had seen this kind of hunting . Torch lights were already standard during my time , for night time shooting , fortunately.
On a related subject , here is a very disconcerting , yet interesting thing , which many of you American gentlemen would find a little uncomfortable :
Most of the tigers in the Sanderband delta of the Buri Ganga ( which you will know as Ganges river ) , south of Calcutta , in Bengal State were of man eating variety . This is because the tigers in this region were living off primarily on rubber plantation workers
 
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This was also an un-ethical hunt.
In my option.
From an old german hunting book (Discalimer: I have the permission, as of the rest of my pictures also), with I buyed in Las Vegas some years ago.
This has an hard story...., with an involved, criminal, high ranged us-soldier, an desateur, sailed to old india...
 

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