Maneater of Faizabad District!!!

This tiger had terrorized the whole district for four months, he killed five people and injured quite a few. His Highness Nawab Shafath Ali Khan shot him on Feb 24, 2009 with his .458 Win Mag.








The injury which most possibly turned this tiger into a maneater.





Unfortunately....according to Indian laws the pelt had to be burnt in front of the authorities.

ouch!! right in the sinuses

You would think "His Highness" would be able to skirt a few rules and have a rug made. A mount for personal enjoyment seems no more or less harmful then turning it into charcoal since it had to be shot anyway.

The paw injury is likely from a bad shot by forest guards that had been reported about 2 weeks earlier.

What a shame to burn the pelt. What's the logic behind that anyway?

quote:

Originally posted by Gayne C. Young:
What a shame to burn the pelt. What's the logic behind that anyway?

I'm only guessing here,that it is to discourage depredation permits being used for trophy hunting. 2 years ago, I was given a Mtn. Lion permit for here in CA where they are not legal to hunt. Similar rules applied, after pictures etc, DFG takes the carcass.

Boy, is that an OBVIOUSLY manipulated photo of the 'hero', or what?

It's the same exact face shot on all three photos.

George

I agree, burning of the pelt is a complete waste of such a beautiful animal.

I believe the law for burning the pelt is heavily enforced in India. Here is a picture from Kenya...burning of Ivory by the authorities.



Ongoing argument is that Kenya could have easily flooded the market with this ivory and made money which could then have been spent on conservation but the decision was more political so they burnt it.

Most anti-hunting countries have similar laws pf burning e.g. India, Kenya...where hunting is either banned or discouraged.

Wildlife numbers in Kenya have gone down drastically since the hunting ban. There is no incentive for the locals to protect the wildlife hence poaching is common.

Wildlife in India is doing good in the designated national parks. Most of it has to do with the Hindu religion...most hindus are vegetarians so the wild game receives automatic protection from the villagers.

A little bit on the difference between Rajas and Nawabs....just like the royalty in UK where titles of Lord, Baron, etc are still used....India and Pakistan still use these titles associated to royalty. Most of the Rajas and Nawabs ruled small states which were incorporated into either India or Pakistan at the time of partition of the sub-continent in 1947. A Nawab is usually a Muslim. A Raja is usually a Hindu.

quote:

Originally posted by GeorgeS:
Boy, is that an OBVIOUSLY manipulated photo of the 'hero', or what?

It's the same exact face shot on all three photos.

George

So it is. I hadn't noticed. Wonder if he was there at all?

I am no photoshop expert but I looked at the three pics separately, they are all different.

First pic and the second pic, the angle of the head is completely different, in third pic he is wearing those librarian type glasses



The second pic definitely looks funky, but it looks like it was taken at night and someone was shining a flashlight right onto him, so I agree the shadows are really funky around his face.

Also, the story was heavily covered by Indian newspapers. I found this article (please see copyright note at the end). This Nawab has already shot a few tigers and problem elephants in the past....I doubt newspapers would publish doctored pics of him.




>>>>>

Hyderabad: The vulture is a patient bird. But he beat the predator at its own game. Spending 35 days and nights tracking your prey is not easy. But he exhibited exemplary staying power and nerves of steel when the chips were down. Ultimately, what won him the day was raw courage and presence of mind – nothing else.
Nawab Shafath Ali Khan differs from the stereotype image of a laid-back nawab. On the contrary, he has quick reflexes, an agile body and a never-say-die spirit. No wonder he succeeded in outwitting the man-eater in the forests of Faizabad on the evening of February 24.
The telephone never stops ringing at his Ali Villa in Red Hills, even a fortnight after the ‘operation tiger’. No, the congratulatory messages have not put him on cloud nine. On the contrary, he feels sorry for shooting down the beautiful tigress. “I am saddened that I failed in caging or tranquilising it,” Mr. Khan sighs.
Great experience


A professional to the core, it was not his first kill. So far the Hyderabadi nawab has killed three man-eaters in Madhya Pradesh and five rogue elephants in Assam, Karnataka and Meghalaya. But the earlier experiences were nothing compared to the present one.
The Faizabad operation required all his tracking experience, knowledge of reading pug marks, understanding of flora and fauna and mostly importantly, the precision in shooting.
Mr. Khan rushed to Faizabad on an SOS call from the UP government. Interestingly, it was the first time that the government permitted engaging the services of a professional hunter to track down the man-eater. The tigress had claimed five lives and mauled 35 persons – sending panic waves among the locals.
Mr. Khan took charge of ‘operation tiger’ on January 20 and for the next 35 days it was a game of wait and watch. Trained elephants were also used to stalk the tigress. But the latter gave the slip every time they thought they were closing on it. However, nawab sahib, as he is called, bided his time.
On that fateful day, the man-eater claimed its last victim - a cow. Sure that it would come to finish it off, Mr. Khan settled on a ‘machan’ atop a tree - his .458 Winchester Magnum rifle positioned. Soon he was face-to-face with his target. There were four bullets in all – three in the magazine and one in the chamber.
The tigress crouched some 30 yards away from the cow carcass, perhaps sensing danger. Khan signalled Kamal, a Lucknow zoo hand, to put on the torch light. As the beam fell on the tigress, it charged and in the breath-held silence, the first shot rang out. It caught the tigress between the left shoulder and neck. The animal fell, rolled over and let out a roar.
The second shot also caught the beast on shoulder. Bleeding profusely, it continued to charge. Now it was almost beneath the ‘machan’. With death staring in his face, Mr. Khan fired the killing shot on the forehead. It all happened in spastic seconds. “I shudder to recall the final moments when the eyes of the tigress shone like bulbs,” he says.
Wasn’t he scared? “I will be lying if I say no,” remarks Mr. Khan.
Sure, courage is not absence of fear. It is mastery of fear.
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu
>>>>>

http://forums.accuratereloadin...6108036/m/2661076401


Previous thread on the tiger, with link to news article.

excellent tiger and excellent shot placement!
yes

Yes Shafath is quite a character to say the least. But he is not "HH" although he does have some links to royalty. I am told first hand by friends who have hunted with him that he is a very good shot and very fond of hunting...

@Kathi
Thanks for the confirmation and the link Kathi. I had heard about the Nawab helping out with problem elephants & tigers in UP Province in the past, so there was no need for anyone to doctor the story.

@reddy375
Any news on India opening up for trophy hunting ? I heard that Blue Bull, Cheetal & Sambhar will be available soon for trophy hunting. Gaur and Barasingha can probably bring in a lot of revenue as well. Gaur would be a nice trophy for a hunter who has already taken Cape Buffalo and Water Buffalo.

There are pockets where game is becoming a nuisance and something will have to be done about it I am sure, but as of yet no definite word on opening up hunting. Lots of ignorant anti hunters in India and no political will to change that!

The only big game hunting allowed at the moment is crop protection permits for wild bore, Nilgai & possibly Chital.

I doubt that this will change as the bureaucracy is terrible & the poaching syndicates are entrenched in killing tigers, elephants and now rhino in Nepal.

Sandal wood will become extinct in Tamil nadu & Karnataka in 10 years or so. They are now stealing 3 inch saplings from private property & in urban areas!

No confirmation that the skin was actually burned!

Kenya decided to burn that ivory because the guys that make the decisions benefit from the poaching and didn't want to depress the market

What a magnificent animal!

i believe that this man shot the tiger, but looking at the second photo of him with the tiger and it is obviously fake. firstly look at the light on everyone's faces including the man's neck. they just do not mix with his face which is exactly the same as the first photo.

the wound on his paw, looks like a foot hold trap wound to me ! caught it on the toe pads instead of the whole paw ! after a time its pads would have died and he would have pulled his paw out of the trap! nasty wound for a cat!
POACHERS TRAP I WOULD GUESS?

ps nice trophy, shame cant keep the skin,

Still, one heck of a big tiger!

Reason for burning the hide: To minimise influencial people getting a tiger branded a 'man-eater' to have an opportuinity to shoot it.

Many cattle lifters would be shot if one was able to keep the hide. As i wrote above, this only minimises these incidents.

In the northere state of Uttrakhand, every year many leopards are declared man eaters and are shot by hunters.

There are people who have shot a dozen big cats, for free.
There is a pool of hunters the authorities can draw from and one needs some influence to get into this pool.

While there is no denying that almost all of them are man eaters, some of them are actually not man eaters in the sense that they cant hunt game.

Last winter was a harsh one and due to heavy deforestation, there was not much game left in the forests. there was this one leopard killed children when they squatted down.(? appeared like a small 4 legged animal?)

This leopard for example, if released in the wild with game available, could be a non-man-eater again. But the child killed was of the village head who in turn is an important figure in the elections as in India it is a common trend for the whole villeage to vote for one party.

Despite burning the pelt, there is a pool of hunters who are people with connections. If the pelts were to be preserved and be the property of the hunter, there would be many fold 'hunters' and 'man-eaters'

During the times Jim Corbett hunted, a big majority of man eaters in India were within his district/county.
In those days, not only did the hunter get to keep the hide but also got a permit to hunt another tiger as a reward.

Coincidence?

Corbett has always been my hero and has done a lot for the tiger but A lot of recent work shows the other side of the great man.