I got a book of useless info from a friend of mine, it's basically a book of random trivia.
However, it has a section on animals and it said that between 1902 and 1907 the same Tiger killed 436 people in India.
Does anyone know anything about this particular case?
My dad told me that he's fairly sure that Jim Corbitt killed the Tiger but he's not 100% sure.
Just curious. Thanks.

The book you want to read is "Man eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett.

The "Champawat Tiger" was a female Bengal Tiger shot in 1911 by Jim Corbett. She was allegedly responsible for 436 documented deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India.

Corbetts book is a pretty darn good read, one thing I noticed myself doing when I first read it a long time ago was (being jaded from reading other gunwriters) finding myself a little skeptical at some of his writings, and then you start thinking that while some people write stuff, this guy actually went and not only hunted man-eaters but killed them, and not just a few but a bunch! In fact, 3 tigers and a leopard that he killed had cumulatively killed over a thousand people.

Anyway, have your local library find a copy for you if you find this stuff interesting.

Corbitt spent many weeks at a time hunting these man-eaters, and he would occasionally have to give up, take a break for a few months, and return.

Geez, And I expected pictures of a man eating a tiger. I kinda wondered if he used a barbecue sauce or what?

quote:

Originally posted by Mark:
The book you want to read is "Man eaters of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett.

The "Champawat Tiger" was a female Bengal Tiger shot in 1911 by Jim Corbett. She was allegedly responsible for 436 documented deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India.

Corbetts book is a pretty darn good read, one thing I noticed myself doing when I first read it a long time ago was (being jaded from reading other gunwriters) finding myself a little skeptical at some of his writings, and then you start thinking that while some people write stuff, this guy actually went and not only hunted man-eaters but killed them, and not just a few but a bunch! In fact, 3 tigers and a leopard that he killed had cumulatively killed over a thousand people.

Anyway, have your local library find a copy for you if you find this stuff interesting.

I got a copy of that book from the library & read it when I was a teenager. (that was a looong time ago)

I can still remember 1 story where he shot a cat & knocked a silver dollar sized piece out of it's skull.

He trailed the cat & later shot it as it was set to ambush him.

Mark,
Thanks for the info, I will look that up.

Jim Corbett added to his tales in "More Man-eaters of Kumaon" which I think is a better book, and has more about himself in it. You get a better idea of what he did but also why he did it. He eventually put the rifle down and took up the film camera. He was the first person to take movies of wild tiger, including cubs with their mother. His stalking skills were incredible. He served with the British Army in World War 1, having been born and brought up in India, and became one of the officer instructors under the command of Major Hesketh Pritchard at the first military sniper school which was formed in about 1916 I think, based in northern France. A fascinating man and seemingly posessed of huge courage.

I remember reading Corbett's books at high school and was fascinated by them then. Just resurrected them again from the local library and they still stir the hunting instincts when reading. Corbett was certainly a man of great courage and hunting prowess.
Another great hunter of maneating leopards (panthers as they were called in India) and tigers was Kenneth Anderson who operated in the south of India (Corbett was in the north close to Nepal). Similar writing style to Corbett and again a very astute and brave hunter. He wrote a few books, I have "The Black Panther of Sivanipalli" which contains stories on several panthers and tigers that Anderson hunted and shot over the years.

Corbett at times seemed to be a bit of a bumbling hunter, making a few mistakes and nearly getting himself killed a few times whereas Anderson, a Scotsman in the vein of those great African hunters Bell and Hunter, seemed to be a bit more organised and skilled in his approach.

Nevertheless both men led fascinating and exciting lives lives when on the trail of maneaters and make great reads.

Several years back, SCI had a 5 set book of Corbett's books they are great.