While our encounters with tigers today are mostly restricted to the confines of a zoo or safari, this was not the case in India of the 20th century where tigers often roamed as they please slaying whomsoever crossed their path. After all it wasn't just a chance occurrence that pitted Sher Khan as the jungle books villain. Statistically tigers were responsible for an average of 1000 annual deaths during the latter period of the 20th century with there being a five-year streak where their victim body count rose to a cumulative 7000. In comparison, the so perceived deadly sharks only claim about 5 victims a year. It's no surprise then that these big cats sent chills of fear and terror throughout the land but there was one that stood out from the rest. The Champawat tiger was a Bengal tiger. These big cats can weigh between 300 and 600 lbs and measured from 6.8 to 11 feet long and stand a few feet high at the shoulder. Female tigers are more likely to be smaller towards the end of those measurements. Like most other tigers, their fur is black, white, and orange. They tend to be solitary creatures. Tigers' canine can measure up to 3.5 inches long and they can bite with force exceeding 1000 PSI. Their bodies are heavy and muscular, and they can easily pen prey before dispatching them with their teeth and claws. Today, Bengal tigers are not as numerous as they were in the past but still their native range include India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Nepal and they can travel long distances each day. Bengal Tigers can run at speed of up to 40miles per hour which makes them incredibly swift predators that can take people and other animals by surprise. The thing that makes tigers even more dangerous to people is their ability to ambush their prey from stealth. These tigers can attack under cover of darkness and during the day cause fatal damage with an ambush and disappear into the thick forest and overgrowth from which they came. With such an incredible mixture of size, speed, and power the champawat tiger easily killed humans.
In 1907 famed British hunter and tracker Jim Corbett held his breath and studied his aim; His target, a gorgeous striped murderous infamous for her bloodlust the champawat tiger. Corbett's first shot hit the tigress in the chest and then the shoulder is last shot made with a rifle he borrowed from a local resident hit the tigress in the foot. It stopped her mid charge just twenty feet or six metres from Corbett's hiding spot. At that moment, the tiger queen's reign of terror came to an end. Corbett was famed for his big cat hunting skills, yet the Champawat tiger kept him on his toes. She made him feel just as much the hunted. what's more? Her dangerous nature was well documented, an estimated 436 Deaths in the kumaon area of India and Nepal were all attributed to her. This figure made her the single deadliest tiger in history but there's more to this story than a contest between man and beast as Corbett found out during his career hunting man eaters.
The attacks began in the Himalayas of western Nepal in a ruple village. Despite the stealth of the massive cat, she left a trail of blood that sent hunters headlong in pursuit yet the tiger evaded capture and death. Despite the failed first efforts of hunter the Nepalese army knew something had to be done so they organised a massive patrol forcing the tiger to abandon her territory. Unfortunately, danger relocated with her driven over River tarda and the border into India. The move did little to slow her thirst for human flesh. In the kumaon district she preyed on countless unprepared villagers; the tigress adjusted her hunting strategy to optimise success while diminishing the risk of containment.
By some accounts she travelled upwards of 20 miles or 32 kilometres per day to make a kill and then avoid capture; She targeted young women and children, they were the ones who most often wandered into the forest to collect firewood, food for livestock, and materials for handicraft.
She only killed during daylight: typical behaviour for man eating tigers. As word got out about the champawat tiger's vicious attacks, daily lifestyle came to a standstill. Hearing the Bengal tigress' roars from the forest, men refused to leave their huts for work. By 1907 locals desperately needed Corbett's help. Born in the town of kumaon region, present day Adarakhan, of British ancestry; Corbett had earned reputation for his hunting and tracking skills especially when it came to leopards and tigers but the champawat tiger was the first man eating cat he ever pursued, and it nearly cost him his life. Just two days before he brought the tiger queen Corbett tracked the beast by following the blood trail of her latest victim, a sixteen-year-old girl from the who lived in a village near the city of champawat had disappeared and villagers and Corbett quickly guessed the girl's fate. After locating the girl's remains, and confirming her violent death by the tigress, he nearly got ambushed by the cat herself only to hastily fired shots from his rifle managed to scare the cat away. Only then that did he recognized the real danger associated with hunting a man eater. The Bengal tiger felt no fear of humans. The next day, Corbett organized a patrol of three hundred of villagers. Around noon, he finally had the murderer rest in his sight and made the kill and life could finally return to normal. Because of the renown he gained by delivering the residence from the big cat, he went on to pursue and about a dozen more well-documented man eaters.
According to estimates, this dozen or so man-eating leopards and tiger were responsible for the deaths of approximately 1200 men, women, and children. Despite the close call he had had with the tiger queen near champawat Corbett always preferred to hunt alone accompanied only by a small dog. He went on to author "man-eaters of Kumaon", "jungle lore", and other books relating experiences from his hunts.
He came to a startling about man-eating big cats in the process. In the forward to maneaters of kumaon, he argued that "the wound that has caused a particular tiger to take to man-eating might be the result of a carelessly fired shot and failure to follow up and recover the wounded animal or be the result of the tiger having lost his temper while killing a porcupine". Eventually Corbett made the switch from stalking animals with rifles to hunting them with cameras. He became an outspoken Naturalist, advocating for the protection of India's wildlife particularly endangered big cats. For the rest of his life, he continued to sound the alarm about the plight of wild cat and other threatened wildlife.
In 1968, one of the five remaining subspecies of tigers was named after him. The indochinese or Corbett's tiger, Panthera tigress corbetti. Tigers are not man eaters by nature; It's far easier for them to attack other mammalian prey like boars and deer. When Corbett examined the body, he found that the champawat tiger was injured years before he even took a shot at it. The tiger was missing two canine teeth and was probably 12 years old. The combination of injuries and old age made it too hard for the beast to hunt other prey. Corbett surmised that the injury was a driving force in the tigers choosing to hunt humans; He had seen similar cases with tigers and leopards in the past. The man-eating tiger of champawat managed to kill 436 people over four years. Although this tigers injury Probably led to it killing people human development also played a role in increasing tiger attacks during that time.
In any period in which human growth reaches into the territory of wild animals, attacks are bound to become more common. The threat of tiger attacks lingers even today despite dwindling population.