Anyone hunt India then.

My Grandfather, mother, grandmother, uncle, and aunt lived in Bangaladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan then. My Grandfather was one of the engineers that built some dams on the Ganges and other rivers.

They hunted Tiger, Sloth bear, leopard, muntjac, hog deer, axis deer, barasinga, and gaur.

Anyone have any photos or similar stories?

I am very interested in how things really were over there.

D99,

My good friends Sam and Rose Pancotto hunted India several times. Sam took five tigers and Rose took two during their hunts. Sam's man-eater story (Striped Marauder of Bastar) was published in the October 1970 issue of Saga magazine. Sam gave me a copy of the magazine.

I will try to get Sam and Rose to the AR meeting on Friday at the SCI Convention, Giraffe bar. If you are attending, I am sure you will enjoy hearing the stories of tiger hunts and 100 plus pound elephants.

I remember sitting at the 'Waterhole' at Klineburgers about 25 years ago when Sam Pancotto, Chris and Bert Klineburger, Tony Sulak were talking hunting.

Talk about 4 guys that did it all. Very few, if any, hunters now will ever do what those guys did in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

D99,

No pictures at the moment - I am in the US and a lot of my stuff is in India. There still are many of the old hunters and if you get to visit any of the Indian clubs you would meet them. That said, they are a dying breed though there are Indian shooting groups on the net.

I hope that a good friend of mine whose family owned a very large shikar company and who has posted here in the past, steps in. I shall contact him though it may take some time to get a response as he has had a recent bereavement, having lost his father - a shikari of note - very suddenly on the second of December.

BTW where in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh were your grandparents and your mother and uncle based? If they were with any club, I might be able to find someone who knew them in the past through my club's affiliations in India and London.

Best wishes and good hunting!

You can find the Sam Pancotto tiger story on the web if you search for it.

Hi D99,

The Chittagong Hill tracts, Sunderbans and the Khaisa and Joyanta Hills bodering the borders of Sylhet and Mymensingh districts in Bangladesh were once good places to hunt. Many tigres were hunted and once in a while rouge elephants were shot. The last tiger that I saw was in Sylhet in 1984. I sat over a leopard kill as late as 1992. The last official rouge elephant shot was in 1998 at Marina Tea Estate.

Tigers still kill about 50 people in the Sunderbans of Bangladesh every year and leopards still walk the jungles in Sylhet tea gardens. The last time I went hunting before I had my liver transplant I shot a water buff in the bay islands and took a muntjac deer in the hill tracts.

Now you simply cannot hunt as its banned and you are more likely to be hunted by 2 legged varmints that pack AK 47's.

I cant post pictures as I do not know how to do so.

Chittagong sounds familiar. I don't know the name of the company my grandfathers name is Cliff Albright from Wyoming. I think one of the dams he built was near there. They talked about Chittagong a lot.

I won't be at the SCI, I just got to Italy from Spain.

Posted for my friend, Mamunar Rahman:

Mamunar Rahman's 2000 Hunt

Mamunar and Nickudu,

Thanks for the photos.

Morrison Knudson is the name of the company.

One of the guys name was Stormy something?

Nick thanks for posting the photo.

D99, your grandfather worked in the construction of the Kaptai Dam, a hydro-elecrtic project, financed by the US Aid. The area where th Dam is loacted , was at that time full of game including tiger and wild elephants.

There are still pockets in the hill trcats where you can find tiger or leopard and gaur. Sambar can be located too.

Thanks Mamunur,

He hasn't had his mind in 10 years. I would love to ask him about it, but it's hard to get anything out anymore.

I really appreciate it.

I've been lurking on this site for a while, but I have to say something about this. My grandfather's stories about his hunting in India during WWII is probably the main reason I hunt big game today. During the war my grandfather was a railroad engineer and would often have layovers in remote areas away from any fighting. He was from Mississippi and was an avid quail hunter. He and a friend would often take their Enfield rifles and hunt deer to ease the boredom and for fresh meat. They didn't issue Garands to train crews, but they had boxcar loads full of British munitions. Grandad enjoyed hunting until his friend wounded a tiger and was mauled severely. Grandad killed the cat, and his friend had to be evacuated. Grandad lost a stripe for this, and a close call with an elephant convinced him to stop hunting in India. I think we would call it poaching today, but he never saw it in those terms. He said that wildlife was extremely abundant back then. Close calls with elephants on the track were routine. When I was older he told me about coming across the body of an Indian man who had been killed by a tiger inside a hut used by train crews. He said that in those years maneaters were so common in India that his report wasn't even that big of a deal.
I lost him two years ago, but I think he was in the Assam (sp?) province? That's the only name I remember. I know he also spent some time in Burma. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Jriley - Welcome to the Forums! Have you ask grandmother if grandfather had any pictures from India?

I'm going over there tomorrow and I will ask my grandmother. My grandfather died two years ago after a long battle with Alzheimers. My grandad was a rabid wingshooter and loved Parker shotguns and Llewellyn setters. Big game was only something to pass the time while he was overseas. Hopefully I can find some pictures and post them.

Not sure of the era, maybe earlier. Sorry about the quality of the scan (from a photocopy).



.

Good reading of that time and place by Peter Byrne, "Gone Are The Days".

Jungle Hunting for Tiger and Other Game in India and Nepal 1948-1969