E

Hunting

The days of the hunter are almost over in India.This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill,and partly because some steps have been taken,mainly by banning tiger-shooting,to protect those animals which still survive.

Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter.I disagree with this view.Surely out earliest fordfathers,who at forst possessed no weapons,spent their time digging for roots,and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.

I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinkds people will adminre his courage in overpowering dangerous animals.Of course,there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing,and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauties of the wild countrysidel.There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design;these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers,even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat.I can respect reasons like these,but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.

The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives(动机).One of them wrote.

“You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it cleanly and on the animal’s own territory(领地)。You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day.This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten,half alive,by other animals,Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing