Thirty Seven years of Big Game Shooting in Cooch Behar, the Duars, and Assam - A Rough Diary.
By Nripendra Narayana Bhupa
Maharaja of Cooch Behar
Printed at Times Press, Bombay - 1908.

Book Extract :
Having set down the records of my big-game shooting, it has occurred to me that readers may like to know something of the country in which the sport was found and the methods generally adopted to circumvent the game. I therefore add a few remarks on these points so that a clearer impression may be gained as to shooting conditions prevailing in Cooch Behar than I fear can be gathered from the narrative. The area of the State is about 1,300 square miles which forms a plain or almost triangular shape, covered with a network of rivers, streams and marshes. There are no hills and no large sheets of water. The country is a level plain, only rising occasionally, as at Garadhat for instance, into gradual undulations. Natural forests there are none worth speaking of though here and there clusters of Sal trees are to be found and patches of brushwood are common enough everywhere. Heavy grass and reed jungle are to be seen fairly frequently especially in the north and north-east portion of the State which borders on Assam and the Bhutan Duars. I have often had occasion in my records to refer to the difficulties we experienced from the Fasni or swampy patches. These marshes are due, I believe, to the nature of the soil and the numerous small streams intersecting that are a feature of the country. Throughout Cooch Behar, the top layer of the soil is a light kind of loam and beneath this comes sand, neither of which offers any resistance to a pressure of water. The consequence is that year by year the rivers change their courses and leave behind marshes locally known as chursy which, valuable as they are from the cultivator's point of view, are an insufferable nuisance to sportsmen. With so much water about - and rainfall averaging about 130 inches to keep the supply going - it is not surprising that new arrivals find the climate unpleasantly damp and somewhat enervating. Exercise, however, is an admirable antidote to ennui of this sort, and though malaria is not uncommon, we seldom suffered much from it when out shooting. Winter, as a rule, sets in fairly early in November and summer com- mences in April, the months of March and October mark- ing the fag-ends of the two seasons. In the cold weather, the thermometer falls as low as 49 degrees and rises to 98, or thereabouts, in June or July. I have generally started for the annual shoot in February, but there was no hard and fast rule about this and in fact, except in the middle of the rains, I have shot at most times of the year. As regards the people, there is one important difference between Cooch Behar and other parts of India, in that the village system does not exist. This is due to the laws of land tenure, for the whole State is divided into small farms, and here the farmer has his home, with his nearest relations and occasionally a tenant or two. All the build- ings are encircled by groves of plantain, bamboo and other quick-growing trees, and these homesteads form one of the principal features of the country.

This brings the dry statement of facts to a close, and I will now turn to the shooting, which I hope may prove more interesting.

The country I have generally shot over extends from the foot of the Himalayas southwards, seldom or never more than 36 miles from the base of the hills. The jungles in Cooch Behar, Duars and Assam are all very similar, and, as I have said, consist of heavy grass of different kinds, intersected by rivers and numerous nullas dotted with trees outside the Forest Reserves, where I have done most of my shikar. During the shooting season the country is generally burnt in patches, and here one follows the method adopted in covert shooting in England. Two or more guns are sent in with the line, while the rest are posted forward as ** stops," and the patches beaten up to them. This sounds in itself easy enough, if it were not that one so often has to contend against difficulties in the shape oi fusny nulUis and bad boggy ground. This form of line shooting with ** stops" is usually practicable in all countries I have shot over. The "stops " generally get the shooting in the case of Tiger, Bear and Leopard. With Buffalo, Rhino, and Bison, very often the guns in the line get the best sport, as Rhinos are exceedingly difficult animals to drive into the open. In forest shooting, one gene- rally makes a big line with most of the guns in it, as it is seldom that suitable places can be found ahead to put the "stops" at.. The best way of shooting in the forest is undoubtedly tracking, one disturbs the country less, and, personally, I prefer this mode as I consider it more sportsmanlike and very interesting in every sense of the word. But this has not been very often possible, as I have generally had more guests than one. Tracking, of course, is only applicable to Rhino, Buff and Bison.