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Man-Eating Tigers of India

Champawat Tigress [Killed in 1907] {436 Victims}

Champawat Tigress became notorious for man-eating, killed some 200 people before being

driven out of Nepal. She made India her second home and continued to kill, bringing her total up

to 436 before she was tracked down and killed in 1907. Her attacks have been listed in the

Guinness Book of World Records as the highest number of fatalities from a tiger. She was so

daring that she could enter villages, even during daytime, roaring and causing people to flee in

panic to their homes.

The tiger began her attacks in a region of Nepal close to the Himalayas during the late 19th

century, with people being ambushed by the dozen as they walked through the jungle. Hunters

were sent in to kill the tiger, but she managed to evade them. Eventually, the Nepalese Army was

called in. Despite failing to capture or kill the tiger, soldiers managed to force the tiger to

abandon her territory and drive her across the border (river Sarda) into India, where she

continued her killing activities in the Kumaon District. She eventually grew bolder, and began

killing people in broad daylight and prowling around villages. Life across the region grew

paralyzed, with men often refusing to leave their huts for work after hearing the tiger's roars from

the forest.

She was extremely cunning, as most man-eaters usually are, but was tracked down by Jim

Corbett because he followed the trail of blood the cat left behind after claiming her last victim, a

16-year-old girl in 1907. The tiger had killed the girl in the town of Champawat, and left a trail

of blood and limbs, which Corbett followed. Corbett found the tiger and shot her dead the next

day, a dramatic feat confirmed by about 300 villagers. A postmortem on the tigress showed the

upper and lower canine teeth on the right side of her mouth were broken, the upper one in half,

the lower one right down to the bone. This injury, according to Corbett, probably prevented her

from hunting her natural prey.

In Champawat, near the Chataar Bridge and on the way to Lohaghat, there is a "cement board"

marking the place where the tigress was finally brought down. However, the exact place where

the tigress was killed by Jim Corbett is closer to the present location of the hydroelectric

powerhouse that is about 1 km (0.62 mi) from the "cement board".

Talla-Des Tigress [Killed in 1929] {150 Victims}

Jim Corbetts life during this February of 1929 became very miserable. Visits to doctors gave him no relief but only confirmed that abscesses were forming on his head. The Deputy

Commissioners of Almora and Nainital Bills Baynes and Ham Vivian were badly affected by

man-eating tigers in the areas of their jurisdiction. The former was in Talla Desh, Almora and the

latter in Nainital. As the Baynes man-eater was more active those days, on 4th of April, 1929, Corbett along with his six Garhwalis proceeded on a route march of 14 miles to Kathgodam to

catch the evening train for Tanakpur. Here the peshkar informed him that a boy was killed on the

previous day by Talla Desh man-eater. Baynes had instructed to send two young buffalos to

Champawat to be used as bait and further that no kill was to be removed without Corbetts approval. The next destination was Kaladhunga, a twenty four miles walk, twelve of which was

through the forest... To reach Talla Desh they had to scale a 4000 ft. steepest climb in the mid

summer of April, By evening they reached a hamlet frequented by the man-eater. They halted

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there for the night. The men lodged behind the locked doors and Jim on his camp bed near the

spring with his rifle and candle. Unless disturbed the tiger may be near the kill made on the 4th

although it was 6th then. Next morning he loaded his rifle with five rounds and walked to a

village called Tamali where a woman had been killed some twenty days ago. He walked another

four miles to Talla Kote. Here also a woman had been killed on 5th. The tiger, save the teeth, had

not even left a stitch of the victims cloth. Dungar Singh, seventeen years old son of the victim led Jim to the place where his mother was killed, a place some 1000 yards away and 1000 to

1500 feet below in the valley under an oak tree. Jim had asked Dungar Singh to whisper in his

right ear or indicate with his hands as his hearing was defective. Suddenly he stopped because

his brother from the saddle of the hill was indicating that something red was lying in the barren

land below.

Crawling on hands and knees they reached the edge of the field and saw two tigers fast asleep at

ten feet apart. Jim fired at the farther one first some 120 yards away. It never moved but the

second one was up in a flash and jumped on a five foot bank of earth, looking back at its

companion and as Jims shot reared up and slipped backwards, it went into the rainwater channel, out of sight. Suddenly Jim noticed a third much heavier tiger racing through the field.

He sighted the aim at 200 yards and no sooner it came out of the weeds. He fired. It fell down

motionless and slipped down to an oak tree. A little later as the tiger moved again and he fired

but it vanished in the trees. Jim had gone some 50ft. down to see the rainwater channel when

Dungar Singh shouted at him pointing towards the escaping tiger. It was lame and unable to

move more than four or five steps at a time. It was the same tiger which had fallen in to the

rainwater channel and was hurt in the shoulder on the left hand side. Taking aim at 300 yards

sight Jim fired and the tiger lurched forward but continued to move. The night was approaching

fast and it was dangerous to follow a wounded tiger now. But there remained no doubt that the

man-eater was this tigress and the other two shot earlier were her cubs. Physically, Jim was in an

awful condition, able to see with his left eye only... Meanwhile, his abscess had burst giving him

great relief. Back in the village he had several hours sleep and much needed rest .While he was

asleep Dungar Singh had come to inform him that the tigress had killed six goats and led him

back to the place of killings. As there was no tree nearby Jim sat down near a rock waiting for

her to appear which she did shortly. As he shot the tigress she jumped up and raced to the flat

ground depriving him of another shot... Jim followed her blood trail and was just three yards

from the bracken that he noticed her in the act of springing on him. But Jims bullet caught her first passing through head to tail and the second broke her neck.

Bhimashankar Tiger [Killed in 1940s] {100+ Victims}

A Pune-based author Sureshchandra Warghade came across an old villager in the Bhimashankar

forest near Pune, who narrated him a story about the terror created by a man-eating tiger in the

Bhimashakar area during a span of two years in the 1940s. The villager was a police constable in

that area during those days and was responsible for dealing with the various formalities relating

to deaths (missing person reports and death certificates etc.) and other jobs such as helping the

hunting parties. According to the former policeman during this period the tiger supposedly killed

more than 100 people, but it was apparently very careful to avoid discovery; only 2 bodies were

ever found.

Several hunting parties were organized to eliminate the beast, but the only one to succeed was an

Ambegaon-based hunter named Ismail. During his first attempt he had a direct confrontation

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with the animal and was almost killed. He later called the famed hunter from Bangalore,

Kenneth Anderson. They returned and eliminated the man-eater. The tiger predominately

killed those village folks who slept outside their huts. Deciding that if it was going to die, it

might as well be as big of an asshole as it could, raided a nearby village and killed everyone it

could find. After this, it was hunted and finally eliminated, one of the few animals to get its kill

count into the three digits.

Authenticity of the story was confirmed when the author examined official reports, which also

including a certificate given by the British authorities for killing the man-eating tiger.

Tigers of Chowgarh [Killed in 1930] {64 Victims}

The Tigers of Chowgarh were a pair of man-eating Bengal tigers, consisting of an old tigress

and her sub-adult cub, which for over a five-year period killed a reported 64 people in eastern

Kumaon over an area spanning 1,500 square miles (3,900 km2). The tigress was attacking

humans initially alone, but later she was assisted by her sub-adult cub. The figures however are

uncertain, as the natives of the areas the tigers frequented claimed double that number, and they

do not take into account victims who survived direct attacks but died subsequently. Both tigers

were killed by Jim Corbett.

On December 15, 1925, a group of men from the village of Dalkania went up a hill to the hut of

a Bhutia in order to complain to him for having seemingly allowed his goats into their crop

fields. The mans sheep dog was found dead, and the next day, his remains were found 100 yards from the hut.

Jim Corbett was called upon from Nainital to hunt down the tigers in February 1929. Three man-

eaters had been reported in the Kumaon Division at the time, and Corbett chose to hunt the

Chowgarh tigers due to their higher body count. A map recording the sites of each kill showed

that the tigers were most active in the villages of the north-eastern face of the Kala Agar ridge.

Corbett arrived at the Kala Agar Forest Bungalow in April that year after a four-day march.

At midday, Corbett left for the valley where the villagers had heard the tigers calling. By

evening, he reached the upper end of the valley without having seen anything, and by the

following afternoon, Corbett was met by a cattle grazer stating that the tigers had taken a cow

that night. Tracking the tigers to a ravine, he found the predators eating the dead cow. Corbett

fired at the lighter-coloured animal, assuming it was the adult. Upon hearing the shot, the other

tiger bolted, and Corbett, upon examining the carcass, found that the dead tiger was in fact the

cub. After the cub was shot, the tigress attacks on human became less successful, as she was

sometimes unable to kill victims on her own.

The following day, Corbett decided to use the four buffalo baits. For ten days, there were no

reports of attacks and the buffalos were untouched. On the eleventh day, a woman was attacked

half a mile on the far side of the village. After dressing her wounds, Corbett tied a bait goat on a

nearby tree, though it was not taken. Three days later, Corbett was informed that a woman had

been killed in Lohali, a village five miles (8 km) to the south of Dalkania. Upon arrival, Corbett

was approached by a village elder who implored him to save his daughter who had escaped from

the tiger with serious injuries. Though Corbett dressed her wounds with permanganate, she died

the following night. After a week, Corbett left Dalkania, though he promised to return upon

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hearing of another attack. During the journey, Corbett saw fresh pugmarks, and warned a buffalo

herder nearby to be wary. Immediately after Corbett left, the herder was attacked by the tigress,

which was driven off by the buffaloes. Before dying, the herder warned his village of the

tigresss presence.

In February the next year, Corbett returned to Dalkania, where many deaths had occurred since

his departure. Corbett tied a buffalo in the forest near the village, and shot two tigers accepting

the bait. Upon inspecting the carcasses, he found that neither were the man-eater. After staying in

Dalkania for a few weeks, Corbett left to attend an appointment with the district officials in the

terai.

On 22 March 1930, Corbett received an urgent request from his District Commissioner to go to

Kala Agar, fifty miles from Nainital. On arrival, Corbett was told that the tigress had recently

killed a woman in the vicinity. Corbett tied his four buffaloes from Dalkania in strategic

locations, one of which was killed four nights later. The culprits turned out to be a pair of

leopards, which were immediately shot in order to prevent them killing more bait.

On 11 April 1930, nineteen days after his arrival in Kala Agar, Corbett, along with two other

men, tied the buffalo baits near an area where a young man had been previously killed. When

positioning himself in a ravine, Corbetts companions rushed to him, saying they had heard the tigress nearby. Corbett encountered the tigress face to face shortly after, sitting next to a large

boulder. Corbett fatally shot the animal from a distance of eight feet, whose death coincided with

an end to the attacks.

An examination of the tigress body showed that her claws and one canine tooth were broken and her front teeth were completely worn down. It was these disabilities that Corbett concluded led

this tigress to having become a man eater as it was thus hampered in killing wild game.

Corbett used two calibres of rifles in hunting these man eating tigers. One was a very heavy

calibre double-barrelled rifle, a "450/400", which was also quite heavy to carry. His second gun

was a lighter calibre rifle, which he refers to as his "275", which term comes from the British

designation for this calibre (as in "275 Rigby"). This calibre is identical to that known the world

over as the "7x57 Mauser", which shoots a bullet that is 7 millimetre in diameter. Corbett's own

"275" rifle was actually a Model 1893 Mauser, a military bolt action, which used a 5 round clip

to feed its cartridges. It was this "275" with which he killed the Chowgarh tigress described

above on 11 April 1930 at a location Corbett describes as being "two miles west of Kala Agar", a

mountain village at the time.

The terrain in which Corbett hunted these tigers was mountainous and steep, with typical

elevations being as high as 6,000 to 8,000 feet, and not far from the border between northern

India and Nepal.

Tara of the Dudhwa National Park [Killed in 1982] {24 Victims}

While the Sundarbans are particularly well known throughout the world for its tiger attacks,

Dudhwa National Park also had several man-eaters in the late 1970s. The first death was on 2

March 1978, closely followed by 3 further kills.

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The population demanded action from authorities. As is usual in cases of this type, the locals

wanted the man-eater shot or poisoned. The killings continued, each one making headlines.

Officials soon started to believe that the likely culprit was a tigress called Tara. Conservationist

Billy Arjan Singh had taken the British-born cat from Twycross Zoo and raised her in India, with

the goal of releasing her back into the wild. His experiments had also been carried out on

leopards with some success.

Experts felt that Tara would not have the required skills and correct hunting techniques to

survive in the wild and controversy surrounded the project. She also associated men with

providing food and comfort, which increased the likelihood that she would approach villages.

Officials later became convinced that Tara had taken to easier prey and become a man-eater. A

total of 24 people were killed before the tigress was shot. Singh also joined the hunt with the

intent of identifying the man-eater, but firm confirmation of the identity of the tiger was never

found.

The debate over the tiger's identity has continued in the years since the attacks. Singh's

supporters continue to claim that the tiger was not Tara, and the conservationist has produced

evidence to that effect. However, officials maintain that the tiger was definitely Tara.

Other man-eaters from Dudhwa National Park have existed, but this tiger remains the most

famous man-eater of the reserve because she was potentially the first captive-bred tiger to be

trained and released into the wild. This controversy cast doubt on the success of Singh's

rewilding project.

Problems at Dudhwa have been minor in the past few years. Occasional tiger attacks still occur,

but these are no higher than at other wildlife reserves. On average, two villagers are attacked at

Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve each year. These attacks generally occur during the monsoon

season when the locals enter the reserve to collect grass.

Tigress of Jowlagiri [Killed before 1955] {15+ Victims}

The Tigress of Jowlagiri was a man-eating Bengal tigress responsible for the deaths of 15

people over an area extending Jowlagiri in the extreme north, to Gundalam 30 miles to the south;

and from the borders of Mysore State to the west. She was killed by Kenneth Anderson.

The tigress first made her presence known by calling in the vicinity of a village in the Jowlagiri

Forest Range, after a poacher killed her mate. After a week, a young hunter named Jack Leonard

arrived at the village and concealed himself behind an anthill at 5 in the afternoon. At 6:15,

Leonard spotted the animal and fired at her, wounding her shoulder. The tigress bounded off into

the impenetrable jungle, where the terrain proved too harsh for Leonard to pursue her.

A few months later, at the village of Sulekunta seven miles from Jowlagiri, the tigress claimed

her first human victim; a boy aged sixteen, whilst picking acid fruits.

Kenneth Anderson was informed of the subsequent attacks by the Sub-Collector of Hosur. By

this time, 15 people, including three girls, one just married, had been killed by the tigress.

Anderson journeyed from Jowlagiri to Sulekunta, hoping to find fresh tracks, but was

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unsuccessful. Anderson moved camp to Gundalam 23 miles away at the southern limit of the

affected area, where the majority of attacks had been reported. Seven herdsman had been taken

in this area in the previous four months. Anderson received three domestic buffalo baits from the

Sub-Collector; the first of which he tied near a river in Gundalam, the second he tied to a path

leading to the nearby village of Anchetty four miles away, the third he tied near a watershed.

Anderson explored the forest with his .405 Winchester, finding fresh tracks two days later on the

sand of the Gundalam river. The buffalo was alive and untouched. The next day, a group of men

from a hamlet a mile south of Anchetty, saying that a man had been killed by the tigress in his

cattle pen. Upon arriving at Anchetty, Anderson followed the tigress trail, where he found the victims body dragged deep into the surrounding jungle. Positioning himself above the corpse on a high ledge, Anderson hoped to catch the tigress when she returned to finish her meal. After

waiting several hours in the dark, Anderson sensed the tigress presence, and upon turning around, saw the tigress above him, ready to pounce. Anderson missed, blowing one of the

tigress ears off, causing her to retreat from the site.

Anderson remained in the locality of Gundalam for a further 10 days with no success in tracking

the tigress. Anderson returned to Bangalore promising the Sub-Collector of Hosur that he would

return if further killings were reported. Three months later, Anderson received a verified account

of a tiger in Gundalam involving an old priest being killed at the door of a temple in Sulekunta.

Anderson went to Gundalam to learn more of the attack. All eyewitnesses to the attack and

others confirmed that the animal was missing an ear. Three days later, Anderson received news

from Jowlagiri stating that the night-watchman of Jowlagiri Forest Reserve had also been killed.

Knowing that the tigress would not strike at the same place twice in a row, Anderson returned to

the temple at Sulekunta with 12 men, where the tigress was heard calling. Anderson imitated the

calls, attracting the tigress to his location. When the tigress approached, Anderson recognised her

by her missing ear. Before the tigress could realise the deception, Anderson fired his .405 into

her forehead and finished the animal with a shot to the back of the neck.

Changa Nala Tiger [Killed in 1969] {8-12 Victims}

This magnificent male tiger, known as "Big Terror", was killed in the village of Changa Nala

in northern India close to the border with Nepal. The tiger had wandered over a large area of

India for several years, killing at least eight and perhaps as many as a dozen people. Travelers on

the road, walking or on bicycle, wood cutters and forest guards - no one was safe.

Dr. Denver Coleman of Pasadena, California, hunted and eventually killed this tiger in 1969.

Tiger of Mundachipallam [Killed before 1955] {7 Victims}

The Tiger of Mundachipallam was a male Royal Bengal tiger who killed 7 people in the

vicinity of the village of Pennagram, four miles from the Hogenakkal Falls. This tiger had no

infirmities preventing it from hunting its natural prey. First three victims the cat claimed were

killed in unprovoked attacks, while the subsequent ones were devoured.

Its first victim was a fisherman who disturbed the tiger whilst it was mating in the jungle near the

banks of the Mundachipallam river. The tiger instantly killed the man, though it did not eat him.

A few weeks later, the same tiger killed a woodcutter and as before, did not eat the victim. Two

months later, the tiger killed a woman gathering fruit. She was the first victim to be eaten. The

tiger killed three more victims in quick succession, one by the 7th milestone of Ghat Road, the

second by the banks of the Chinar river, the third a mile from the village of Ootaimalai.

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Kenneth Anderson was contacted by his shikari, Ranga, at Bangalore, but was unable to go right

away due to prior engagements. After two more killings, Anderson arrived at Ootaimalai and

was assisted in his hunt by Ranga and three other men; Byra, Sowree and Lucas. The three latter

men, armed with a .12 bore gun, volunteered to scout around the neighbouring forest and along

the Coimbatore bank. Ranga acquired three baits, the first of which was tied a mile up the Chinar

river from where it joined to the Cauvery, the second three miles further, where Mundachipallam

met the Chinar. The third bait was tethered 100 yards from the site of the first killing. This

proved unsuccessful, as after five days, the tiger left the baits untouched and claimed another

human victim. The victim was a man, killed 100 yards from his hut and dragged to the banks of

the Chinar where he was eaten.

Anderson ordered the building of a blind near the site of the kill, where he hoped the tiger would

return to finish its meal. Anderson waited in the blind throughout the night, at one point

mistaking a striped hyena for the tiger, which quickly left the area upon being hit by torchlight.

The tiger eventually came, but was disturbed by the sound of Andersons rifle knocking against the bamboo surrounding the blind. The tiger moved behind the blind, though could not attack,

due to the lack of an opening. Eventually, the tiger left.

The four men, now aided by a pariah dog named Kush-Kush-Kariya belonging to Sowree,

resumed the hunt by checking on the three baits. Ranga, while being accompanied to the second

bait by a villager, encountered the tiger on the way. The two men narrowly escaped with their

lives by climbing a tree. A group of villagers, upon hearing the commotion, rushed to Ootaimalai

where Anderson was staying. Anderson arrived, the tiger having been driven off and the two

men being left unscathed.

After three unsuccessful hunts, Kenneth and his hunting party shot the tiger from the top of a

tree while it was feeding on its latest victim at the site of its very first victim, by 2 subsequent

gunshots, one to the neck to paralyze it followed by one to the heart.

Tiger of Segur [Killed before 1955] {5 Victims}

The Tiger of Segur was a young man-eating male Bengal tiger who killed five people in the

Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu state in South India. Though originating in the District of Malabar

District and Wayanad District below the south-western face of the Blue Mountains, the tiger

would later shift its hunting grounds to Gudalur and between the Sigur Plateau and Anaikatty in

Coimbatore district.

Kenneth Anderson commenced his hunt for the tiger after it had killed a girl collecting water

from the Segur river, and a herdsman a week later at Anaikutty.

Upon hearing that the tiger frequently traversed the ten miles of forest road between Segur and

Anaikutty, Anderson decided to sit up on the route connecting the two places, though for a whole

week, he saw no sign of the tiger. He was informed on the seventh day that a man had gone

missing on the foothills of the Nilgiris, though upon finding his body, it turned out that the

culprit had been a sloth bear.

Two days later, a report came in from Mahvanhalla stating that a woman had been taken by the

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tiger near a bridge by which the main road to Tippakadu crossed the Mahvanhalla stream.

Anderson went deep into the surrounding jungle with a guide and eventually found pieces of the

woman, which he took back to her husband for burial. Anderson tied a buffalo bait near the

Segur river, but he did not expect the tiger to attack anytime soon after having already eaten, so

he did not spend the night in the vicinity. He was surprised the next day when the buffalo was

killed, and immediately set up a hunting platform above the carcass. Though the tiger called out

through the night, it never made an appearance.

Two days later, just as Anderson considered leaving for Bangalore, a Badaga child was taken in

Segur whilst taking a midday meal to his father. After convincing the boys father to leave the body as bait for the tiger, Anderson moved it to a densely covered location a few yards from the

kill site in order to hide himself better in the tigers vicinity. By 9 in the evening, the tiger returned, but it left soon after without touching the corpse, possibly having become suspicious of

how its victim had been moved.

Seven days later, the tiger killed the 18 year old son of a Forest Guard stationed at Anaikutty at 9

a.m. Accompanied by the boys father, Anderson investigated the scene of the disappearance and found the boys cap and slippers discarded. Following the tigers trail with Karumba trackers, the group entered the jungle and found the boys corpse. There had evidently been a great struggle, as the surrounding vegetation had been crushed, and the tiger had finished the boy with a skull

crushing paw swipe. Anderson set up a platform above the body, but was thwarted that night

after a downpour of rain and a malaria infection.

It was killed by Kenneth Anderson on the banks of the Segur River after four unsuccessful

hunts. Anderson went to the Segur river with his Karumba trackers, when suddenly they heard

the alarm call of a sambar deer and quickly took cover. After 10 minutes of waiting, the tiger

revealed itself at the rivers edge. Taking aim, Anderson fired his .405 Winchester at the tigers left shoulder, killing it.

Upon examining the carcass, Anderson noted that the tiger had one eye, the other having been

badly damaged by a shotgun slug. Anderson later wrote that this disability preventing it from

hunting its natural prey.

Thak Tigress [Killed in 1938] {4 Victims}

The Thak man-eater was a Bengal tigress from Eastern Kumaon division, who killed and ate

four human victims (two women, two men) between September and November 1938, but her

story is widely known as the last hunt of the legendary hunter, conservationist and the author

Jim Corbett. She was operating in Kumaon, at the Nepalese border, between the villages Thak,

Chuka, Kot Kindri and Sem. Corbett at age 63 stalked with little rest and sleep for almost 3

weeks, climbed the steep path to Thak several times and eventually bagged his prey at point-

blank range.

Hunting her was one of the most dramatic hunting stories, as Corbett called her up and killed her

during the dying seconds of the daylight, after he lost all other means to track her down.

Postmortem revealed that this tigress had two old gun-inflicted wounds, one of which had

become septic. One of the wounds to the left shoulder of the tigress became septic, incapacitating

her at least for some time to hunt her usual prey. That was, according to Corbett, the reason

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tigress started attacking humans, particularly as she had cubs to feed. Female tigers are known

sometimes to resort to man-eating when they are partly incapacitated while raising cubs.

Corbett was asked to track down and kill the man-eater after the very first human kill. It was

unusual for India to react so promptly to the killing of a first human victim by an animal. The

reason for this was that next to the remote villages Chuka and Thak, where Thak man-eater was

operating, government decided to fell trees and thousands of workers were planned to work in

the area from November 1938. Governmental officials wanted to get rid of the man-eater in order

not to hamper forest works. As Corbett noted in the story, he agreed to go after the tigress

primarily because he wanted to help villagers to get rid of her.

Corbett made two hunting expeditions to the villages Chuka, Thak and Sem (October 23 -

November 7, and November 2430). He finally managed to kill the tigress on November 30, 1938, on the very last day of his second hunting expedition, and the last day of his career as a

hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards.

Chuka Tiger [Killed in 1937] {3 Victims}

The Chuka man-eating tiger was a male Bengal Tiger responsible for the death of three boys

from Thak village in the Ladhya Valley in 1937. It was shot by Jim Corbett in April 1937.

On a day in early January 1937, seven men and two boys were herding cattle on the outskirts of

Thak village. At 10 am the cattle began to stray towards the jungle and one of the boys was sent

to herd the cattle back. The tiger was hiding in the jungle and killed a calf belonging to the herd.

As he was about to carry it off the boy approached close to him and was promptly killed and

half-eaten. Until midday, the tiger remained close to his kills when a kakar (muntjac) spotted him

and raised an alarm. The men who were sleeping at that time were woken up by the alarm. Upon

realizing that the cattle had strayed into the jungle, the second boy was sent to herd them back.

The tiger promptly killed the second boy, which startled the cattle into chasing away the tiger

and stampeding in the direction of the village. The tiger chased the stampeding cattle and killed

one of them in full view of the men. The shouting of the men and the stampeding cattle attracted

the attention of the villagers who came to the spot. The mother of the second boy found her son

lying dead in the jungle. Close to his corpse the parents of the first boy found their half-eaten son

and the dead calf. According to Corbett, the result of being disturbed on his first kill had turned

the tiger from a cattle lifter to a man-eater.

A few days later a buffalo that had been tied up at the lower end of the Suwar Gadh ravine was

carried away. As Corbett approached the ravine he heard the growl of the tiger. Leaving the

ravine along with his men he entered open ground. One of his men spotted the tiger on the

adjoining hill. Corbett fired at the tiger but the bullet missed, only clipping a few hairs from the

ruff of the neck. Following the tiger he found the kill in a pool four feet deep, where it had been

hidden to protect it from hornets and blowflies. Returning the next day he found the kill had been

removed from the pool and had been fully consumed except for the head and the hooves.

Returning to camp Corbett received news that a cow had been killed in a ravine on the far side of

the Ladhya Valley. Corbett along with divisional officer MacDonald sat up over the kill.

However instead of the man-eater a tigress with two young cubs appeared and led them towards

the concealed kill. After the cubs had found the kill, she went asleep close to the tree where

Corbett was concealed. After the cubs had finished feeding, she licked both of them clean and

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then the family left. This tigress was later to become known as the Thak man-eater and was

shot by Corbett in November 1938.

The kill at Thak was uncovered to let the vultures eat it and another buffalo was tied up at the

edge of the jungle. This buffalo was killed and carried away by the tiger into the Ladhya Valley.

Corbett chose a fig tree close to the kill to wait for the man-eater while Ibbotson decided to sit up

over the first kill at Thak which had not been consumed by the vultures. While sitting up over the

kill Corbett noticed the tiger coming towards it with the help of the alarms of monkeys. The

man-eater eventually came to rest under the tree where Corbett was waiting for him. From the

tree Corbett could see his hind leg and tail. Corbett's first shot broke the man-eater's back and as

he was sliding down Corbett killed him by firing a second bullet through his chest.

Corbett found the man-eater had a broken canine tooth in his lower jaw and several gunshot

wounds all over his body. These injuries together with the accidental encounter with the first two

boys had turned him into a man-eater.

Mohan Tiger [Killed in 1930] {1+ (Several) Victims}

The Mohan Man-Eater operated near the Himalayas on cliffs near the Kosi River and 18 miles

from Corbetts summer home. A woman was attacked 4 miles from her village and the villagers are terrified. The injured woman was brought back to the village and told her story to Mothi

Singh, a friend of Major Corbetts; she later dies. The woman was the first human killed by The Mohan Man-Eater. The tiger later killed a number of other people across the area and at an

increasing rate.

Villagers identified the tiger always made a low moaning sound by which they knew it had

entered the village and the continuous sound sometimes stopped for short periods as it passed

between houses. Corbett concluded there was a wound on its legs which hurt when it moved and

it only stopped moaning when it stopped moving.

Corbett eventually kills the tiger with 2 gunshots as it is lying down on a ledge after tracking it

for awhile. Post-mortem reveals a festering leg with yellow fluid oozing out which has 25-30

porcupine quills protruding from it. Hence, the reason for the moaning sounds and maybe why it

became a man-eater.

MODERN DAY MAN-EATERS:

Tiger of Pilbhit [Captured in 2010] {8 Victims}

The tiger is reported to have killed its first victim on May 3, 2010 in the Deoria range of Pilibhit

forest division. The victim had entered the jungle in search of drift wood. On June 7, a second

killing took place; when the body was recovered, the victims right arm was found to have been eaten. This was the first instance in which the tiger was alleged to have eaten part of its victim.

After having reportedly claimed four more victims in the Deoria range, the tiger was said to have

moved to the Khutar forest range in the Shahjahanpur forest division where it claimed two more

victims in August 2010.

After the fourth human kill, forest department officials installed camera traps to identify the

killer. A photo-capture confirmed the presence of three adult tigers and a cub in the locality.

Pugmarks were collected at the sites of the killings along with hair that had fallen from the

tigers body, which was sent for DNA analysis. Based on these investigations, officials identified

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the animal as a sub-adult male that was attempting to establish its territory.

The tiger was not branded a man eater because all the human kills had taken place within the

forest area. The tiger had also not eaten the flesh of three of its alleged victims and had continued

to kill its natural prey. Accordingly, it was decided to capture instead of shooting the tiger. The

National Tiger Conservation Authority and a team from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)

assisted forest officials in the capture of the tiger. On September 2, 2010 Avijit Bhawal of the

WTI fired a dart at the tiger. However, the tiger was alarmed by an inadvertent shot fired by a

forest guard, causing it to move, deflecting the dart. On October 14, the tiger was tracked to a

clump of Prosopis juliflora, where it was taking cover near Nagla Hira Singh village in

Farrukhabad forest division. Three darts were successfully fired to tranquilize it. Prior to the

tigers sedation, a large crowd of people had gathered around the clump of bushes where the tiger was hidden and began pelting the animal with stones. One person was mauled severely and

several others suffered injuries when the tiger attacked them. The tiger was sent to Lucknow Zoo

on October 15 where it came to be known as Farrukhabadi by the zoo staff because of the fact

that it was captured in the Farrukhabad forest division. Due to a lack of available space at the

Lucknow Zoo, the tiger was moved to the Kanpur zoo on October 24.

Uttarakhand-Corbett Reserve Tiger [Killed in 2011] {6 Victims}

A forest warden on Thursday shot to death a man-eater that had created terror in and around

Kumaon's Corbett Reserve, stalking and killing at least six people in the last three months. The

animal had killed and eaten his latest victim a 27-year-old man earlier in the day.

Forest officials launched an extensive combing operation to trace the nine-year-old man-eater

after mutilated remains of the man identified as Puran Chand were found and the 10-feet-long

big cat was finally felled around 2.30pm.

Initially, there was confusion whether it was the same man-eater which had stalked victims

around the park for three months. But Uttarakhand forest officials confirmed on Thursday

evening that the tiger shot by them was indeed the killer of villagers in and around Corbett since

November. "We cannot say that man-eating has ended in Corbett forever but the perpetrator of

recent incidents has been killed for sure," said S Chandola, Uttarakhand's chief wildlife warden.

The park's tiger count was 164 before this killing and wardens said that tigers often strayed out

of core areas to the inhabited periphery after fights over territory or old age that affected their

hunting abilities.

The big cat had been shot at on January 11 by forest officers when it was eating one of its

victims. "I had predicted that the wound would be on its shoulder," said Chandola. The same

wound, he said, was found on the carcass.

On Thursday, the tiger was shot several times in neck and thighs. "But I have found the old

wound as well though it had healed," he said.

Earlier in the day, villagers went on a rampage and blocked the highway after the mutilated

remains of Puran Chand were recovered from Sunderkhal area in Ramnagar forest division.

Puran, the son of Bhopal Ram, a resident of Maldhan village in Ramnagar, went missing on

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Wednesday. According to a forest officer, he had left his motorcycle on the edge of the forest

and walked in around 1pm, as local people do to cross the forest on foot to reach human

settlements on the other side.

When Puran wasn't be traced until 7pm, locals went to Ramnagar officers and sought a search of

the area. His motorcycle was found parked and villagers surrounded the area that probably

prevented the tiger from moving out. On Thursday morning, the man's legs were recovered from

Sunderkhal forest area. The tiger had eaten the rest of the body.

As angry protests erupted, forest officers called in the police to control the mob which had

blocked Ranikhet-Ramnagar highway. "We also called in three elephants for the combing," said

Ramnagar DFO Ravindra Juyal.

Govindpur Tiger [Killed in 2007] {6 Victims}

In December 2007, TNN reported: Four police department sharpshooters shot dead the man-

eating tiger, which had wreaked havoc in Talodi, at 8 am on Friday. Interestingly, the wild cat

turned out to be a male tiger and not a female as assumed earlier. The animal was shot in

compartment number 30 on the periphery of Govindpur village, when it was approaching a bull

that it had killed. The village is part of the Talodi-Balapur forest range of Bramhapuri forest

division in North Chandrapur Circle in Chandrapur District in Maharashtra State . [Source: Vijay

Pinjarkar & Mazhar Ali, TNN, December 1, 2007]

"It was a close encounter from about 60 metres. In all, we fired 38 rounds and eight bullets were

removed from the caracass of the tiger. When we hit the first bullet, the tiger was still walking

but his movement became slow. We fired more rounds but two bullets - one in the neck and

another in the heart proved fatal," sharpshooters Durgadas Gadam and Vijay Bhardiya told "I'm

relieved. It was a right decision as human life is more important for us than the tiger. We had

been chasing the animal since October 15 but were unsuccessful. We would have been in trouble

following more attacks on humans," remarked B Majumdar, principal chief conservator of

forests (PCCF), wildlife, Maharashtra.

The tiger had killed six villagers, four of them in little over a month. "We had been spending

sleepless nights for the past six months. Now our nightmare is over," claimed many villagers,

who looked relaxed after seeing the tiger dead. The sharpshooters from Chandrapur headquarters

were led by Rahul Sorte, RFO. When the dead tiger was being taken in a vehicle, hundreds of

curious villagers thronged the roads to have a glimpse of the man-eater. The officials also went

slow to send a message that the animal was killed.

Bandipur-Nagarhole Tiger [Captured in 2013] {4 Victims}

Mysore, Dec 5: People in Karnataka must be relieved now as the man-eater tiger, which killed

four people lately, has been entrapped finally on Thursday, Dec 5. Despite the shoot-at-sight

order, the tiger was tranquilised near Mysore. The tiger was roaming around Chikkabargi forests

in the HD Kote taluk of Mysore district. On Saturday, a forest watcher was killed in Nagarhole

forest. On Tuesday, the tiger had attacked another person who was identified as Basappa, 55, a

farmer who took his cattle close to the forest when he was reportedly attacked by the tiger. The

incident happened in Hediyala range of Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The state govt announced a

compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the dead Highly placed sources in Bandipur Tiger

Reserve confirmed that the tiger that killed Basappa had also killed Cheluva, a tribal from

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Seegevadi village a few days ago and Basavaraj from Nadadihaadi.

The forest department had carried a combing operation after the second attack but called it off on

Monday and instead tightened security at the fringe areas of the forest. Later it was resumed on

Wednesday. Local villagers had protested near the forest department guest house against the

growing animal attacks and the authorities had to deploy additional policemen to pacify the

agitators. The Bandipur-Nagarhole area is home to around 180 tigers and is surrounded by

around 300 villages, making the man-animal conflict a common occurrence in these parts. On

Wednesday, state forest minister Ramanath Rai gave shoot at sight orders to kill the man-eater.

The state government also declared Rs 5 lakh as the compensation for the families of the killed

persons.

Nilgiris Tiger [Killed in 2014] {3 Victims}

Chennai, Jan 2014 (Indianexpress.com)

Camera traps, cages, elephant patrols and audio recordings of mating calls the Tamil Nadu forest officials are trying everything possible to capture a tiger that has killed three people in the

Nilgiris district so far.

Its first victim was Kavitha, 33, who lived near the forest area. Kavitha went missing on the

evening of January 4. The next day, her partially-eaten body was found inside the forest.

Three days later, on January 7, Chinnappan, 58, was found dead in the area.

But what changed the mood of the villagers from fear to panic was the last killing, on January 8.

Muthulakshmi, 38, was attacked when she was returning home with other workers. The tiger

leapt from the bushes and dragged her inside the forest, even as her co-workers made loud noises

to scare the animal away.

Following this attack, the district administration shut down as many as 45 schools located near

the forest area as a safety measure. The Doddabetta park, a popular tourist destination in the

district, has also been closed until further notice.

We have advised people to move in bigger groups and be cautious while working in the tea estates, said District Collector P Shankar. Public address systems and leaflets are being used to communicate with the villagers.

While forest officials had begun tracking the animal soon after the first incident, the second and

third killings have increased the urgency of their efforts. Images captured by camera traps have

confirmed that it is a tiger.

Watch towers are in place to sight the animal and six cages have been kept ready. Expert

shooters with tranquiliser guns are patrolling the forest on three trained elephants, while sniffer

dogs have also been roped in. Forest officials are also trying to lure the tiger by playing audio

recordings of mating calls.

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It is an extremely difficult terrain, making it tough to track the tiger or flush it out. It is not easy for the animal either. The fragmentation of its habitat due to human encroachment has made it

difficult for it to get out of the 20-25 sq km forest area where it is trapped right now, said Chief Wildlife Warden Lakshmi Narayan.

Ooty Man-Eater Tiger Killed (TNN, Jan 24, 2014)

UDHAGAMANDALAM: The man-eater tiger that threw life out of gear for residents of 45

villages on the fringes of Doddabetta-Snowdown reserve forest in Tamil Nadu's Nilgiris district

has been killed.

The postmortem found that the animal which was killed in Wednesday was a five-year-old male

and not a female aged nine years as was earlier stated by forest officials.

The lower jaw of the big cat was found to be injured and it was severely underweight, weighing

only 102kg for its 2.6m length, one reason why officials suspect the animal became a man-eater.

Conservator of forests, V T Kandasamy said that they were forced to shoot the animal in self-

defence as it tried to charge the STF personnel who were involved in trapping it. But he refused

to reveal the number of bullets that had been recovered from the tiger's body.

District forest officer (North division), B Sugirtharaj Koilpillai, said that the tiger had migrated

from the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiris. A camera trap of the animal recorded in May

2012 near Masinagudi area matches that of the dead man-eater tiger.

"We are yet to ascertain why it strayed out of the reserve forest area. It may have migrated to

establish its own territory," he said. Although it is common for a carnivore to stray out of its

habitat, he said each incidence must be studied specifically, to ascertain why it happened. He

ruled out the chances of another man-eater in the area but said the entire experience was a

wakeup call to be more vigilant.

According to STF sources, during the final operation on Wednesday evening, after the big cat

had killed a cow, two STF personnel and a tribal tracker ventured into the forest area near the tea

bushes after dark. During the 20-minute operation, three rounds comprising more than 15 bullets

were fired using AK-47 guns. "After firing the first round, the tiger began charging at us. During

the second round it was hit on its forehead. But it continued to move," said an STF official.

According to sources, the veterinarian doctor armed with tranquilizing shot did not accompany

the STF personnel during the final operation on Wednesday.

The whole operation involved more than 150 people, including 30 members of Nilgiri Wildlife

and Environment Association (NWEA) apart from police, STF personnel and forest officials.

There were many volunteers too among the public, who participated. The forest department

along with the NWEA will document the whole process as a study case and submit it to the

higher authorities. All relevant reports in connection with the operation will also be sent to

NTCA.

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The big cat which had killed three people and two cows in a span of three weeks had spread

panic among villagers residing in fringe areas. The 17 schools which had been closed for more

than a week reopened on Thursday. But 15 police personnel have been deployed in

Kundhachoppai, Thummanahatty and Kappachi areas as a precautionary measure, said AG

Anitha, Ooty town DSP.

Other Notable Man-Eating Tigers

Kanda Man-Eater Killed by Jim Corbett Muktesar Man-Eater - Killed by Jim Corbett

Yemmaydoddi Man-Eater Killed by Kenneth Anderson Hosdurga-Holalkere Man-Eater - Killed by Kenneth Anderson

Chamala Valley Man-Eater - Killed by Kenneth Anderson

Sunderbans Man-Eaters [At Large] {Victims: Several a year}

Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans, in India and Bangladesh are estimated to kill from 50-250

people per year. The Sundarbans is home to over 500 Bengal tigers, one of the largest single

populations of tigers in one area. Before modern times, Sundarbans were said to "regularly kill

fifty or sixty people a year". About a third of all the tiger attacks in India occur in the

Sunderbans, a densely vegetated mangrove swamp on the border between India and Bangladesh.

Estimates of tiger victims there range from 15 to 100 a year.

Sunderbans tigers have been known to stalk their human prey for days and burst out of the water

and snatch people sitting on boats. Their victims are mostly fishermen, honey gatherers and

woodcutters who enter the swamps. Most villages in the Sunderbans have at least one tiger

widow. One individual tiger, identified by his paw mark, killed at least 14 people.

One 64-year-old woodcutter told Time, "My friend was chopping down a tree while three of us

stood guard around him, watching the jungle. Suddenly, a tiger leapt over our heads and attacked

my friend at the tree. The tiger was dragging him away... so I grabbed my friends legs and tried to pull him out of the tigers mouth." The tiger let go but the died from his injuries and woodcutter never went back into the jungle." A fishermen said, "I woke up to see the flash of a

tiger as it jumped over me to attack the man sleeping next to me. The tiger killed him."

Sunderbans tigers have had a reputation for fierceness for a long time. In the late 1800s,

according to British records, they killed roughly 700 people a year. In 1666 a French explorer

wrote: "Among these islands, it is in many places dangerous to land, and great care must be had

that the boat, which during the night is fastened to a tree, be kept at some distance from the

shore, for it constantly happened that some person or another falls prey to tigers. These ferocious

animals are very apt... to enter into the boat itself, while the people are asleep, and to carry away

some victim."

These tigers are a little smaller and slimmer than those elsewhere in India but remain extremely

powerful and are infamous for destroying small wooden boats. Between 1975 and 1989, 521

people were killed in the Indian sector alone. They are not the only tigers who live close to

humans; in Bandhavgarh, villages encircle the tiger reserves, and yet attacks on people are rare.

Although attacks were stalled temporarily in 2004 with new precautions, recently attacks have

been on the rise. This is particularly due to the devastation on the Bangladeshi side of the swamp

caused by Cyclone Sidr which has deprived tigers of traditional food sources (due to the natural

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upheaval) and has pushed them over towards the more populated Indian side of the swamp.

In a news report from Dhaka (Bangladesh), a Forest Conservator Mr. Tapan Dey told a news

agency that tiger attacks on humans have increased in last few years. In 2009, tigers had killed

50 people, which is the highest in this century so far. In 2007 the figure was only 24, less than

the half. He attributed this phenomenon to the decreasing tiger habitat in the south-eastern

region. (Hindustan August 01, 2010).

Failed Precautions: The locals and government officials take certain precautions to prevent

attacks. Local fishermen will say prayers and perform rituals to the forest goddess, Bonbibi,

before setting out on expeditions. Invocations to the tiger god Dakshin Ray are also considered a

necessity by the local populace for safe passage throughout the Sundarbans area. Fishermen and

bushmen originally created masks made to look like faces to wear on the back of their heads

because tigers always attack from behind. This worked for a short time, but the tigers quickly

realized it was a hoax, and the attacks continued. Government officials wear stiff pads that rise

up the back of the neck, similar to the pads of an American football player. This is to prevent the

tigers from biting into the spine, which is their favoured attack method.

Reason for Sunderbans Tiger Attacks: There is no exact clue about why Sunderbans tigers are

so aggressive toward humans. Conservationists, scientists, biologists, and various other specialist

groups give number of reasons for these attacks.

Being on the coastal area, the water here is relatively salty. In normal habitats, tigers drink fresh

water. It is said that the saltiness of the water has put them in a state of constant discomfort,

leading them to be extremely aggressive. Freshwater lakes have been artificially made but to no

avail.

High tides, which are a regular feature in the area, wash away tigers urine and scat which serve as territorial markers. In such a situation the only way left is to defend the territory by physically

dominating everything that enters.

There is another likelihood that the tigers here have become used to human flesh due to the

weather. Cyclones in this part kill thousands of people almost every year, and the bodies drift out

in to the swampy waters, where tigers scavenge them.

Tigers find hunting their normal prey difficult due to the continuous high and low tides making

the area marsh-like and slippery. Humans who come to the forests to gather honey and to fish

become easy prey. It is said that over time the cat has acquired a taste for the human flesh. About 5,000 people frequent the swamps and waterways of the Sundarbans. Fishing boats

traverse the area and many stop to collect firewood, honey and other items. In the dark forest,

tigers find it easy to stalk and attack men absorbed in their work. Even fishermen in small boats

have been attacked due to tigers strong swimming abilities.

It has also been hypothesized that the tigers in this area, due to their secluded habitat, avoided the

brunt of the hunting sprees that occurred over the course of the 20th century. Tigers inhabiting

the rest of Asia developed a fear of humans after these events, but tigers in the Sundarbans would

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never have had reason to stop seeing humans as prey.

Even at the rate people are being killed per year, humans provide only about three percent of the

yearly food requirements for the tiger population in Sundarbans. Therefore, despite the notoriety

associated with this area, humans are only a supplement to the tigers diet; they are not a primary food source. To avoid attacks on humans villagers in the area have agreed to occasionally release

livestock into the forest in order to provide an alternative food source for the tigers and

discourage them from entering villages. The government has agreed to subsidize the project to

encourage village participation.

Mysterious Queen of Kumaon [At Large] {10 Victims}

Mar 15, 2014: Lucknow, India (Ksl.com)

A man-eating tiger in northern India has now claimed 10 victims. Hunters are combing the area,

but the tiger has thus far eluded them.

Terrified locals have dubbed the enigmatic killer the Mysterious Queen.

The tigers first victim was a 65-year-old man whose body was discovered Dec. 29, 2013. The most recent victim was a 50-year-old man killed last month. Some of the victims have been

mauled beyond recognition.

According to a CNN report, many villagers in the region believe the tiger lost her cubs and is out

for revenge. Fearful of the creatures wrath, they set traps or tried to lure it in with bait. Theyre armed with rifles and farming tools. Yet there has been no success and the deaths continue.

While this man-eater seems to be exceptionally stealthy, it isnt necessarily staying away from populated areas.

When a tiger turns into a man-eater, it becomes faster and shrewder, tiger expert Nazim Khan told CNN. A normal tiger would change its course at the hint of people nearby and lose itself in the jungle. A man-eater does the opposite: It uses an uncanny sense of sight and touch to move

toward people.

Authorities believe the female Bengal tiger has strayed from her normal territory in northern

Indias Jim Corbett National Park. The park is the oldest national park in India and holds a substantial population of tigers.

News reports suggest that the tiger is prowling an area that covers roughly 80 miles.

Feb 10,2014 (The Mirror)

Forest rangers have been outwitted by the tigress for six weeks with a blood and body-strewn

trail leading from a national park in northern India to villages in the Himalayan foothills.

Locals have nicknamed her the Mysterious Queen after the four-year-old, 200kg (31 stone)

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beast crossed more than 150km (93 miles) almost without being seen.

Trackers said the tiger has crossed a six-lane motorway, swam across the Gagan river and moved

through villages on the prowl for human prey.

Six hunters have now been given shooting permits to end the tigers reign of terror by officials in the northern Uttar Pradesh region.

Salil Shukla, a forest officer, said: It has become difficult to track the maneater because the sugarcane fields and dense forest in the region provide the predator a perfect cover.