Man-eater: First Kill | Investigation and Pursuit

It’s important to gather intel while hunting a wild beast. Jim Corbett knew this too as he set out to find more information about the Champavat Man-eater. A beast he had sworn to slay.

The town of Champavat, which once was the hunting ground of the maneater. Sources: Wikimedia Commons

The town of Champavat, which once was the hunting ground of the maneater. Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Corbett got ready with a few men of the village to visit the spot from where the latest victim, a woman collecting leaves, was taken by the man-eater. Before they set out on their investigation, Corbett met with the family of the victim. The villagers were Hindu and as per their funerary customs, the dead were cremated. The victim's family requested Corbett to bring any part of her body he could find so that her soul could be put to rest.

The site of the latest kill was a tree, up the ravine where the victim was collecting leaves when she was attacked. Arriving at the spot, Corbett at once deduced that the tiger had stealthily hidden in the gorge, working its way up to attack. He descended the ravine looking for pugmarks to confirm his suspicion. He noticed pugmarks and discovered that they belonged to a tigress. The animal they were chasing was a female.

Some ten yards away from the tree, Corbett noticed a rock where the tigress had laid down waiting for the woman to get down from the tree. The tree itself had signs of struggle as the poor woman must have hopelessly clung to it when the tigress attacked. Parts of the woman’s skin were still hanging from the branches, a testament to her desperation to stay alive in the face of certain doom.

Continuing the trail, Corbett found a large patch of dried blood. This was the spot where the tigress had killed the woman. Following the blood trail from there on led him across the ravine on the opposite bank. The trail further led to a spot in the bushes where the tigress had eaten her kill. He found a few pieces of the woman’s cloth and bones, and after carefully wrapping them in a clean cloth, sent them to the village for the cremation ceremony.

The investigation had borne fruit. Corbett now had an understanding of the animal he was pursuing.

Corbett met more families of victims and eyewitnesses to hear their accounts. In the course of these interviews, he also met the young girl who had lost her voice during her encounter with the tigress. The villagers had pinned all their hope on him. They believed he was going to save them. But Corbett knew that for a beast with a reputation of never killing twice in the same location and whose dominion extended over a hundred miles, it would be an impossible task for Corbett. Yet he marched on.

A few days of investigation led Corbett to believe that the tigress had left the locality and he deduced that it was fifteen miles due east, towards Champavat. Much to the dismay of the people of Pali village, he bid them goodbye to continue the trail of the tigress.

Corbett lodged in the Dak Bungalow in Champavat and met with the Tahsildar (a revenue officer in charge of a small town) there. He heard the harrowing accounts of the tigress attacks in Champavat and understood the fear they were living in. Yet there was no sign of the animal. That is until it made its presence known.

One day a man came running uphill to the bungalow and as soon as he saw Corbett, he called out, ‘‘Come quickly sahib, the man-eater has just killed a girl.’’ Corbett picked up his rifle and moved towards the village. The hunt was on.