Corbett National Park & Tiger Reserve

“It is asserted that in recent years tigers have increased. With this assertion I do not agree. It is a fact that more cattle are being killed every year; this is not due to tigers having increased but due to the balance in nature having been disturbed by the unrestricted slaughter of game, and also to some extent to tigers having been driven out of thrir natural haunts where they were seldom or never seen by man, by the activities of the Forest Department.
 
A country's fauna is a sacred trust, and I appeal to you not to betray your trust. Shooting over water, shooting over salt licks, natural and artificial, shooting birds in the close season and when roosting at night, encouraging permit-holders to shoot hinds, fencing off large areas of forest and the extermination by the Forest Department of all game within these areas, making unnecessary motor tracks through the forest and shooting down from motor cars, the absence of sanctuaries and the burning of forest by the Forest Department and by villagers at a time when the forest are full of young life are all combining to one end-the extermination of our fauna. If we do not bestir ourselves now, it will be to our discredit and under our very eyes, while we looked on and never raised a finger to prevent it.”