Any news of wild life preservation (or lack of it) in India, as in other parts of South Asia, must be examined against the background of a young democratic and liberal administration which has not sought to restrict the issue of licenses for firearms and which has encouraged rapid development and industrialization. Those outside the sanctuaries have become considerably human population and spread of villages and agriculture, and an equal increase in numbers of domestic cattle and buffaloes with consequent opening up of new areas for grazing.