Jim Corbett National Park is one of the most popular and ideal places in India to spot tigers in the wild. Did you know this national park has a famous story that is globally known? Jim Corbett’s Champawat tigress is known for holding the record for the most number of humans killed by an animal. This story of man-eating started a long back in the late 1890s. Interestingly, it did not start in India but in the neighbouring country, Nepal.
Champawat Tigress Holds The Record For Most Number Of Humans Killed By An Animal
This era was known for tiger hunting. Something similar happened with this maneater tigress too. As per the stories, this tigress was shot in her face directly. She did not die due to the gunshot but it broke her upper and lower canine teeth. After this incident, she was not as strong and ferocious as before and she even could not hunt animals. So, the tigress started preying on humans as they were easy targets.
Suddenly, the people of Nepal’s Rupali village started seeing that more and more villagers started disappearing near the forest. They were very afraid of such incidents all of a sudden and realised that the disappeared humans were the prey of the tigress. There was a moment when the villagers thought that there were many maneaters and not one, as the number was increasing with every passing day. She was very cunning and mostly attacked girls and women during the daylight.
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Hunters Failed To Kill This Maneater
People came together to kill her and save the villagers from further incidents but they were unsuccessful in doing so. In fact, the Nepal army joined the clan to kill her, but they failed too. They failed in killing her but somehow they sent her off from Nepal. Champawat tigress soon entered Uttarakhand’s Kumaon and started her hunting reign there. In fact, Indian hunters tried a lot to shoot her down but they failed in doing so. The maneater was very tricky and deceitful to come to anyone’s hold.
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Jim Corbett Finally Saved Everyone
Jim Corbett was the saviour of the villagers. He was not a professional hunter but he successfully killed the maneater and saved the villagers from any more gruesome deaths. A British official invited Jim on this maneater tigress hunt in 1907 as he was aware of Jim’s hunting skills. Corbett agreed to do it but he had some conditions. He did not demand any money for the hunt and he wanted any other hunting parties to be called off from this Champawat tigress hunt.
Corbett went on the hunt but failed to kill her on the first attempt. He went on the hunt again, and this time he finally shot the tigress under a lot of risks as his gun ran out of bullets in between. He quickly took the Tehsildar’s gun and made the final fire at the tigress. After so many attempts and deaths, Corbett successfully killed the maneater.