The Champawat Tiger....436 victims

[1srelluc]

The Champawat Tiger killed more than 400 people in a four year span until finally the British got serious about hunting it down.​

Realistically, most people today have nothing to fear from tigers (although zookeepers are not as safe as may be assumed), but back in early 20th-century India, death by tiger was a terrifyingly real possibility. There was a good reason Rudyard Kipling cast the tiger as the villain in The Jungle Book.

The animals killed about 1,000 people each year in the last half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, there was a five-year period when they claimed 7,000 victims. In contrast, sharks only kill about five people per year.

An Insatiable Man-Eater​

The notorious Champawat Tiger (or tigress, as it were) began her reign of terror in Nepal around 1903. This particular female Bengal tiger had already killed an estimated 200 people by the time she was driven over the border by the Nepalese army. She then continued her bloody spree in India, terrorizing villages and killing another 234 people.

Back when tigers were still feared killers, tiger hunters actually saved hundreds of lives. In turn-of-the-century India, there was one man the authorities knew could take on the deadly tigress: Colonel James Corbett. Corbett was a Brit “of Irish descent” who operated in colonial India and had made a name for himself as a hunter of man-eating beasts.

Legendary British hunter Colonel James Corbett with the Bachelor of Powalgarh tiger he brought down.

When the government asked Corbett to track down the Champawat Tiger, he agreed under two conditions:

“One that the Government rewards be cancelled, and the other, that the special shikaris, and regulars from Almora, be withdrawn. My reasons for making these conditions need no explanation for I am sure all sportsmen share my aversion to being classed as a reward-hunter and are as anxious as I am to avoid the risk of being accidentally shot.”

Corbett went on to track down a number of man-eating creatures, but his career as a hunter came to an end after he dispatched the infamous Bachelor of Powalgarh, “a tiger with record proportions.”

In his later life, he became a conservationist and helped to found India’s first national park. He died in 1955, with the park that he founded called Jim Corbett National Park.

The whole article is worth the read.

The Champawat Tiger Killed More Than 400 People – Until A Colonel Hunted Her Down

The Champawat Tiger killed more than 400 people in a four year span in Nepal and India until a renowned British hunter tracked her down.

allthatsinteresting.com

How could tigers kill so many people before they were dispatched you might ask?

Back then the Brit Raj's views on an ordinary village Apu walking around with a loaded, slung Martini-Henry were not very positive least they turn on the Raj.

They be quick.

 

[JGalt]

The Champawat Tiger killed more than 400 people in a four year span until finally the British got serious about hunting it down.​

Realistically, most people today have nothing to fear from tigers (although zookeepers are not as safe as may be assumed), but back in early 20th-century India, death by tiger was a terrifyingly real possibility. There was a good reason Rudyard Kipling cast the tiger as the villain in The Jungle Book.

The animals killed about 1,000 people each year in the last half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, there was a five-year period when they claimed 7,000 victims. In contrast, sharks only kill about five people per year.

An Insatiable Man-Eater​

The notorious Champawat Tiger (or tigress, as it were) began her reign of terror in Nepal around 1903. This particular female Bengal tiger had already killed an estimated 200 people by the time she was driven over the border by the Nepalese army. She then continued her bloody spree in India, terrorizing villages and killing another 234 people.

Back when tigers were still feared killers, tiger hunters actually saved hundreds of lives. In turn-of-the-century India, there was one man the authorities knew could take on the deadly tigress: Colonel James Corbett. Corbett was a Brit “of Irish descent” who operated in colonial India and had made a name for himself as a hunter of man-eating beasts.

Legendary British hunter Colonel James Corbett with the Bachelor of Powalgarh tiger he brought down.

When the government asked Corbett to track down the Champawat Tiger, he agreed under two conditions:



Corbett went on to track down a number of man-eating creatures, but his career as a hunter came to an end after he dispatched the infamous Bachelor of Powalgarh, “a tiger with record proportions.”

In his later life, he became a conservationist and helped to found India’s first national park. He died in 1955, with the park that he founded called Jim Corbett National Park.

The whole article is worth the read.

The Champawat Tiger Killed More Than 400 People – Until A Colonel Hunted Her Down

The Champawat Tiger killed more than 400 people in a four year span in Nepal and India until a renowned British hunter tracked her down.

allthatsinteresting.com

How could tigers kill so many people before they were dispatched you might ask?

Back then the Brit Raj's views on an ordinary village Apu walking around with a loaded, slung Martini-Henry were not very positive least they turn on the Raj.

They be quick.

Dayum! That thing came out of nowhere!