ANDAMAN ISLANDS: Dear Deer

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Birds and reptiles have always abounded in the Andaman Islands, a series of lush green mountaintops dotting the Bay of Bengal. But up to 25 years ago the mammal population of the Andamans was a poor minority. The only wild four-footed friends the island Pygmies could boast were a few small pigs, rats and native, skunklike creatures. In 1928 an Indian government expert visited the Andamans and decided that what the islands needed was a properly decorative quadruped. He introduced a pair (male & female) of dainty spotted chital deer. With no natural enemies to bother them, the chital deer multiplied wonderfully. They were lovely to look at, and they were soon making a mess of the Andaman Islands, eating the forests bare and ruining the native farms.

Last year another government expert visited the Andamans. What the islands now needed, he decided, was a pair of panthers to control the deer. The panthers were soon delivered, and last week New Delhi's Forestry Department announced that they are already making a deep impression on the deer population. Furthermore, it said, there should be no danger of a new epidemic of wild life on Andaman—both panthers are females.