Thak man-eater
Encyclopedia
The Thak man-eater was a female Bengal Tiger
who killed and ate four human victims (two women, two men) between September and November 1938. She was operating in Kumaon
, at the Nepal
ese border, between the villages Thak, Chuka and Sem. The tigress was shot at about 6.00pm on November 30, 1938 by Jim Corbett
. This was the last man-eater killed by Corbett. The story about Thak man-eater is known as one of the most dramatic stories about man-eating animals. It was the last story in the USA edition of the bestselling book Man-Eaters of Kumaon
(published by Oxford University press
in 1944). In the UK edition the last story of the book was "Just Tigers". The book Man-Eaters of Kumaon
became the book of the year in USA in 1945, and a Hollywood film Man-Eater of Kumaon
was made in 1948.
female tiger
, known as Thak man-eater, comes from two documental stories written by hunter, conservationist
and author Jim Corbett
. In a story about Chuka man-eating tiger (from the book “Temple Tiger and other Man-Eaters of Kumaon”, published in 1954 by "Oxford University Press
") Corbett described how he saw for the first time a female tiger which later became known as “Thak man-eater”. According to the story, in April 1938 Corbett was concealed on a machan waiting for the Chuka man-eating tiger, but instead of a male man-eater a female tiger with two young cubs appeared. Corbett described in detail how the tigress was teaching cubs to move silently through the jungles, leading them towards the concealed kill (a carcass of a cow), and on a final stage of the search letting cubs to find the kill themselves, coordinating their search with occasional vocal signals. After cubs found the kill, she went asleep close to the tree where Corbett was concealed. After cubs finished feeding, she licked both of them clean and then the family left. Corbett’s description is one of the first detailed accounts of how female tigers teach their cubs behavioral patters necessary for the survival of the tigers in the wild.
The second source about the tigress is a story “Thak man-eater” from the bestselling book “Man-Eaters of Kumaon
” (published in 1944 by Oxford University Press
). According to Corbett, between April and September the tigress was apparently shot and wounded twice from a muzzle-leaded gun. One of the wounds to the left shoulder of the tigress became septic, incapacitating her at least for some time to hunt her usual prey. That was, according to Corbett, the reason tigress started attacking humans, particularly as she had cubs to feed. Female tigers are known sometimes to resort to man-eating when they are partly incapacitated while rising cubs.
Corbett was asked to track down and kill the man-eater after the very first human kill. It was unusual for India to react so promptly to the killing of a first human victim by an animal. The reason for this was that next to the remote villages Chuka and Thak, where Thak man-eater was operating, government decided to fell trees and thousands of workers were planned to work in the area from November 1938. Governmental officials wanted to get rid of the man-eater in order not to hamper forest works. As Corbett noted in the story, he agreed to go after the man-eater primarily because he wanted to help villagers to get rid of the man-eater.
Corbett made two hunting expeditions to the villages Chuka, Thak and Sem (October 23 - November 7, and November 24–30). He finally managed to kill the tigress on November 30, 1938, on the very last day of his second hunting expedition, and the last day of his career as a hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards.
Apart from villagers, the tigress terrorized a several-thousand-strong work-force who were working in a nearby Kumaya-Chak, where thousands of trees were being felled. On one occasion the tigress came close to a building where workers were stationed, and workers started shouting at her to drive her away. Instead, very unnaturally for tigers, who usually avoid groups of shouting humans, this shouting infuriated the tigress and she came closer and with her roaring cowed thousands of workers into silence.
According to Corbett, one of the cubs of the tigress, which Corbett saw together with his mother in April, was still around in October–November (another one must have died). Corbett saw on many occasions the pug-marks of a young male tiger in October and November. November is a mating season for tigers, so the tigress’s calls were often heard. Corbett failed to kill the tigress during all three weeks of hunting. On the last evening of his hunt, November 30, Corbett conceded defeat. After collecting his men and his two goats and walking to his camp with the decision to leave early morning next day, Corbett heard tigress calling for a mate again. Corbett decided to try to deceive the tigress by calling himself as a male tiger, as a last chance to get a shot at her. The tigress responded to Corbett's call and during the next 30 minutes she was gradually approaching Corbett and his men. Corbett was on a path between the villages Thak and Chuka when he heard the first call of the tigress, so finding a place to meet the unsuspecting tigress became crucial for him. He decided to meet her at a four foot high rock on an eastern side of the rectangular piece of flat land about 800 meters from the village Thak, at the path from Thak to Chuka. Sitting sideways on a narrow ledge on the rear side of the rock, Corbett was holding himself awkwardly with his left hand and outstretched right foot, placing his rifle on the top of the rock. The light was fading, and as Corbett did not have a lighting device, he was afraid that the tigress would appear too late and he would be unable to see and shoot her in the dark. This would have left Corbett and four of his men at a mercy of a man-eating tigress, enraged by her failed attempt to find a mate.
Fortunately for Corbett, the tigress appeared in front of the rock in the dying seconds of the fading light, and Corbett killed her with two bullets at close range. The recoil of the shots knocked Corbett from the ledge where he was sitting, and he fell on top of his four men and two goats, who were sitting silently under the rear side of the rock, terrorized by the roar of the approaching tigress.
This was the last man-eating tiger killed by Corbett, ending his 32 years career of hunting man-eating tiger
s and leopard
s. Corbett was 63 at the time. After just weeks of this hunt Corbett started a major project of filming the tigers in their natural environment with a newly available at that time “cinema-camera”. Also, two years before this hunt, in 1936, with a major contribution from Jim Corbett
, the first National Park in India, designed to save a tiger population (today this park is known as Corbett National Park) was established.
, professional hunter and author, who investigated most of the Corbett hunting sites, showed in his book a few pictures of a big rock with a ledge as a site of killing of the Thak man-eater. Thak villagers showed this rock to Byrne in 1995 This rock does not coincide with several important details of Corbett’s description, and as a result, Peter Byrne's account of Corbet's hunt differs from Corbett's own account in many details (for example, according to Byrne, Corbett was standing behind the rock, not sitting on the ledge, and also, according to Byrne, Corbett did not fall after shooting, as there is no space for falling behind the rock). In the recent years Chuka villagers were showing tourists another rock, closer to the village Thak, as the killing site of the Thak man-eater. This rock also has many discrepancies with Corbett’s description. As Corbett was widely known for his legendary honesty, and as his hunting accounts are regarded fully documental, disappearance of this famous rock, described in Corbett's story, was confusing. On January 21-23 2011 Joseph Jordania
did a detailed research of the path between Thak and Chuka. Following the description given by Corbett, he found a rock, which coincides with Corbett's description in every detail, both according to its place and the position of how one can sit on the ledge behind of the rock. Apparently, the path from Thak to Chuka have changed since 1938, and the killing site of the Thak man-eater is today about 25 meters away from the currently existing path (and about 40 meters south-east from the Peter Byrne
's rock). Mountain village Thak with spectacular views on Sarda river and Indian and Nepalese Himalayan mountains is currently almost deserted, although villages Chuka and Sem are still thriving and currently there are even plans to build a road leading to this region. At the moment, in order to see the killing site of the Thak man-eater, a traveler needs to cover 20 km trekking on foot from Thuli Gad to Chuka, and then three kilometers of steep climb from the village Chuka to the mountain village Thak.
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...
who killed and ate four human victims (two women, two men) between September and November 1938. She was operating in Kumaon
Kumaon Division
For Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or Kumaun is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. It includes the districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar...
, at the Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
ese border, between the villages Thak, Chuka and Sem. The tigress was shot at about 6.00pm on November 30, 1938 by Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett (hunter)
Edward James "Jim" Corbett was a British hunter, conservationist, author and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India....
. This was the last man-eater killed by Corbett. The story about Thak man-eater is known as one of the most dramatic stories about man-eating animals. It was the last story in the USA edition of the bestselling book Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...
(published by Oxford University press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
in 1944). In the UK edition the last story of the book was "Just Tigers". The book Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...
became the book of the year in USA in 1945, and a Hollywood film Man-Eater of Kumaon
Man-Eater of Kumaon
Man-Eater of Kumaon is a 1948 film directed by Byron Haskin. It stars Sabu and Wendell Corey. The film was made after a success of Jim Corbett book Man-Eaters of Kumaon, published in 1944. The film was not based on any of the stories of the Corbett's bestselling book, instead the film was based on...
was made in 1948.
Sources
The information about the BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
female tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
, known as Thak man-eater, comes from two documental stories written by hunter, conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
and author Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett (hunter)
Edward James "Jim" Corbett was a British hunter, conservationist, author and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India....
. In a story about Chuka man-eating tiger (from the book “Temple Tiger and other Man-Eaters of Kumaon”, published in 1954 by "Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
") Corbett described how he saw for the first time a female tiger which later became known as “Thak man-eater”. According to the story, in April 1938 Corbett was concealed on a machan waiting for the Chuka man-eating tiger, but instead of a male man-eater a female tiger with two young cubs appeared. Corbett described in detail how the tigress was teaching cubs to move silently through the jungles, leading them towards the concealed kill (a carcass of a cow), and on a final stage of the search letting cubs to find the kill themselves, coordinating their search with occasional vocal signals. After cubs found the kill, she went asleep close to the tree where Corbett was concealed. After cubs finished feeding, she licked both of them clean and then the family left. Corbett’s description is one of the first detailed accounts of how female tigers teach their cubs behavioral patters necessary for the survival of the tigers in the wild.
The second source about the tigress is a story “Thak man-eater” from the bestselling book “Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...
” (published in 1944 by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
). According to Corbett, between April and September the tigress was apparently shot and wounded twice from a muzzle-leaded gun. One of the wounds to the left shoulder of the tigress became septic, incapacitating her at least for some time to hunt her usual prey. That was, according to Corbett, the reason tigress started attacking humans, particularly as she had cubs to feed. Female tigers are known sometimes to resort to man-eating when they are partly incapacitated while rising cubs.
Corbett was asked to track down and kill the man-eater after the very first human kill. It was unusual for India to react so promptly to the killing of a first human victim by an animal. The reason for this was that next to the remote villages Chuka and Thak, where Thak man-eater was operating, government decided to fell trees and thousands of workers were planned to work in the area from November 1938. Governmental officials wanted to get rid of the man-eater in order not to hamper forest works. As Corbett noted in the story, he agreed to go after the man-eater primarily because he wanted to help villagers to get rid of the man-eater.
Corbett made two hunting expeditions to the villages Chuka, Thak and Sem (October 23 - November 7, and November 24–30). He finally managed to kill the tigress on November 30, 1938, on the very last day of his second hunting expedition, and the last day of his career as a hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards.
The story
The story “Thak man-eater” was written by Corbett as a fully documental account of his hunt after the tigress. From the very first day of hunting Corbett realized that the tigress was in return hunting him and his men. Corbett was finding her pug-marks following him wherever he went, so he had to be extremely careful not to become a victim. Two wounds, received by the tigress earlier at the kill, made her very suspicious of everything and she was not coming back to her kills. This made hunting her particularly difficult, as the most popular way to kill a man-eater is to ambush a tiger at a kill. The village Thak was abandoned because of the fear of the man-eater, and the doors of many houses were left open. Tiger pug-marks were throughout the village streets and open doors, so Corbett had to be very careful not to give a chance to the tigress to attack him. Tigress pug-marks were also often found near the tents where Corbett and his men were sleeping during his first hunting expedition, at the confluence of the Ladhya and Sarda rivers, near the village Sem.Apart from villagers, the tigress terrorized a several-thousand-strong work-force who were working in a nearby Kumaya-Chak, where thousands of trees were being felled. On one occasion the tigress came close to a building where workers were stationed, and workers started shouting at her to drive her away. Instead, very unnaturally for tigers, who usually avoid groups of shouting humans, this shouting infuriated the tigress and she came closer and with her roaring cowed thousands of workers into silence.
According to Corbett, one of the cubs of the tigress, which Corbett saw together with his mother in April, was still around in October–November (another one must have died). Corbett saw on many occasions the pug-marks of a young male tiger in October and November. November is a mating season for tigers, so the tigress’s calls were often heard. Corbett failed to kill the tigress during all three weeks of hunting. On the last evening of his hunt, November 30, Corbett conceded defeat. After collecting his men and his two goats and walking to his camp with the decision to leave early morning next day, Corbett heard tigress calling for a mate again. Corbett decided to try to deceive the tigress by calling himself as a male tiger, as a last chance to get a shot at her. The tigress responded to Corbett's call and during the next 30 minutes she was gradually approaching Corbett and his men. Corbett was on a path between the villages Thak and Chuka when he heard the first call of the tigress, so finding a place to meet the unsuspecting tigress became crucial for him. He decided to meet her at a four foot high rock on an eastern side of the rectangular piece of flat land about 800 meters from the village Thak, at the path from Thak to Chuka. Sitting sideways on a narrow ledge on the rear side of the rock, Corbett was holding himself awkwardly with his left hand and outstretched right foot, placing his rifle on the top of the rock. The light was fading, and as Corbett did not have a lighting device, he was afraid that the tigress would appear too late and he would be unable to see and shoot her in the dark. This would have left Corbett and four of his men at a mercy of a man-eating tigress, enraged by her failed attempt to find a mate.
Fortunately for Corbett, the tigress appeared in front of the rock in the dying seconds of the fading light, and Corbett killed her with two bullets at close range. The recoil of the shots knocked Corbett from the ledge where he was sitting, and he fell on top of his four men and two goats, who were sitting silently under the rear side of the rock, terrorized by the roar of the approaching tigress.
This was the last man-eating tiger killed by Corbett, ending his 32 years career of hunting man-eating tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
s and leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
s. Corbett was 63 at the time. After just weeks of this hunt Corbett started a major project of filming the tigers in their natural environment with a newly available at that time “cinema-camera”. Also, two years before this hunt, in 1936, with a major contribution from Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett
James or Jim Corbett may refer to:*Jim Corbett , Edward James "Jim" Corbett , British-Indian hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards, conservationist, naturalist, photographer and author*James J...
, the first National Park in India, designed to save a tiger population (today this park is known as Corbett National Park) was established.
The killing site of the Thak man-eating tigress
The rock, where Corbett met and killed the Thak man-eater, became a source of much research, speculations and controversy. Peter ByrnePeter Byrne
Peter Byrne may refer to:* Peter Byrne , English actor who played Andy Crawford in Dixon of Dock Green * Pete Byrne, British musician-See also:*Peter Burns, Australian Rules footballer...
, professional hunter and author, who investigated most of the Corbett hunting sites, showed in his book a few pictures of a big rock with a ledge as a site of killing of the Thak man-eater. Thak villagers showed this rock to Byrne in 1995 This rock does not coincide with several important details of Corbett’s description, and as a result, Peter Byrne's account of Corbet's hunt differs from Corbett's own account in many details (for example, according to Byrne, Corbett was standing behind the rock, not sitting on the ledge, and also, according to Byrne, Corbett did not fall after shooting, as there is no space for falling behind the rock). In the recent years Chuka villagers were showing tourists another rock, closer to the village Thak, as the killing site of the Thak man-eater. This rock also has many discrepancies with Corbett’s description. As Corbett was widely known for his legendary honesty, and as his hunting accounts are regarded fully documental, disappearance of this famous rock, described in Corbett's story, was confusing. On January 21-23 2011 Joseph Jordania
Joseph Jordania
Joseph Jordania is an Australian-Georgian ethnomusicologist and evolutionary musicologist. In some early publications his name was spelled as Zhordania...
did a detailed research of the path between Thak and Chuka. Following the description given by Corbett, he found a rock, which coincides with Corbett's description in every detail, both according to its place and the position of how one can sit on the ledge behind of the rock. Apparently, the path from Thak to Chuka have changed since 1938, and the killing site of the Thak man-eater is today about 25 meters away from the currently existing path (and about 40 meters south-east from the Peter Byrne
Peter Byrne
Peter Byrne may refer to:* Peter Byrne , English actor who played Andy Crawford in Dixon of Dock Green * Pete Byrne, British musician-See also:*Peter Burns, Australian Rules footballer...
's rock). Mountain village Thak with spectacular views on Sarda river and Indian and Nepalese Himalayan mountains is currently almost deserted, although villages Chuka and Sem are still thriving and currently there are even plans to build a road leading to this region. At the moment, in order to see the killing site of the Thak man-eater, a traveler needs to cover 20 km trekking on foot from Thuli Gad to Chuka, and then three kilometers of steep climb from the village Chuka to the mountain village Thak.
See also
- TigerTigerThe tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
- Man-eating tigers
- Jim CorbettJim CorbettJames or Jim Corbett may refer to:*Jim Corbett , Edward James "Jim" Corbett , British-Indian hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards, conservationist, naturalist, photographer and author*James J...
- Man-Eaters of KumaonMan-Eaters of KumaonMan-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...
- Corbett National Park
External links
- Jim Corbett Foundation http://www.respectance.com/group/The_JIM_CORBETT_FOUNDATION