Tiger Hunting in India

IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. VI. MARCH, 1903. No. 5. TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. BY COL. R. M. BRYCE THOMAS, RETIRED OFFICER OF THE ENGLISH ARMY AND FORMER RESIDENT OF INDIA. Stories of big game hunting in the tropics possess consider- able fascination and attraction for some persons, inasmuch as they describe a kind of sport that is not only out of the common, but that combines in it-elf at the same time to so great an extent the two elements of excitement and danger; and I have been induced to comply with the request of friends here, to whom I have now and again narrated a few of my hunting experiences in India, to write one of them for publication in the Era, in the hope that it may be appreciated by the readers of that periodical. Some years ago, I was posted to a pleasant and favorite up- country station, situated in one of the best shooting districts of the central provinces of India. There I met two congenial spirits, also comparatively new comers, congenial in the sense of possess- ing one and the self-same love of, and devotion to, large game sport, and, as may easily be imagined, we were eagerly anticipat- ing the pleasure of once again beating up the wily tiger in its native haunts. It was not long before we discovered the similari- ty of our tastes in these respects, and commenced comparing

322 ' IMPROVEMENJ ERA. notes and exchanging views on the subject of sport, with the re- sult that we planned some joint tiger-shooting expeditions, and roughly divided the neighboring jungles or forests into three blocks, apportioning one to each of us, and deciding that he in whose block a tiger or other large animal should at any time be found and beaten up, should both arrange for, and captain that particular hunt. A few days after this,we sent our private'*shikaris," or native hunters, out to our respective blocks with instructions to track down any big game they might come across, and send in periodical reports. Having done this, we patiently awaited results. Parenthetically, and by way of elucidation, I will here make a short digression, and mention a few of the principal requirements and duties of the head shikari. In the first place, it is a sine qua noil that he should be sufficiently conversant with the ways and habits of such animals as tigers, panthers, bears, wild buffalo, bison, etc., and at the same time be a first-rate tracker, able to indicate,with fair accuracy by the foot prints of such animals, how long previously they had passed over the ground, and even to dis- tinguish their sex and size therefrom; consequently, the success or otherwise which is likely to be achieved in hunting large, fierce, and shy game, depends a very great deal upon the shikaris' capa- bilities in these respects. The first thing that a good and reliable man will do, when he gets to work in the jungles, is to institute the fullest enquiries in all the surrounding villages as to whether any, and, if so, what animals are known or are believed to have been afoot of late, and then to track such animab down; but when a tiger is the game of which he is especially in search, he will ordi- narily not trouble himself very much as to the movements of other and smaller animals. The "kotwals," or village watchmen, will usually supply the shikari with two or three villagers to assist him, especially if he happens to be known to them, and is in the employ of any of the district officials, or if he holds a "pur- wanna," or written order, from some district authority, indicating what business he is upon. Sometimes a resident local hunter, possessing a fair knowledge of the likeliest places for the game which the shikari is in quest of, may be induced for a small re- muneration to accompany him and his assistants, and give them the benefit of his knowledge and experience in respect to that par-

TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. 323 ticular forest in which they may be working. Should a tiger, or even his footprints, have been lately seen by any of the villagers, or should a bullock or cow happen to have been killed by one while grazing in the lands of any of the surrounding forest vil- lages, the head shikari will at once proceed very carefully and quietly to track the brute down, but in no way to molest it, or do anything that might induce it to leave those forests for some of its other haunts—perhaps some miles away. He will at the same time select the most likely cover where a tiger would lay up, usually in the neighborhood of a little water, and away from all cross-forest roads and paths, or other similar places where it might easily be disturbed; and there, in the evening, he and his as- sistants will tie up to trees as bait, at intervals of about one hun- dred to one hundred and fifty yards, three or four young, fairly grown buffaloes, or old and practically useless cattle, having pre- viously watered them and placed sufficient straw for them to eat during the night. Tigers are always on the prowl at night time, and, avoiding the denser jungles and heavier undergrowth, select the forest paths, and the dry and sandy beds of "nullahs," or streams, to walk along; and it is consequently in or near such places that cattle are usually tied up as bait. Very early next morning, the shikari and his assistants go the round of these cat- tle, or as they are termed in India "garas," and those they find alive are driven back into the villages from which they were ob- tained. If one is discovered to have been killed and partly eaten, steps are at once taken to ascertain the direction in which the tiger is gone, usually by making a long circuit round the locality, and examining the sandy beds of all streams or other places where the animal could possibly have left its footprints. In this way the tiger ^'s often located although seldom seen, and especially so if it happens to have gone in the direction of known good cover where there is water about, for, after a heavy gorge or meal, and a good drink of water, a tiger will not often move far away, its inclina- tion being rather to lie down and go into a heavy sleep, in some cool, secluded spot, where there is no likelihood of its being dis- turbed. Now to return to my story. One morning about a week after we had sent our shikaris out, I received word from my block that

324 IMPROVEMENT ERA. a very large tiger had killed and partly devoured a bullock during the previous night, and that my head shikari had located him in a certain part of the forest where there was excellent cover, and had also arranged to collect a hundred or more beaters together, in case we decided to go out. On receipt of this news, or "khub- ber," as it is termed by the natives, I sent immediate intimation to my two friends (whom I will hereafter call Lloyd and Gascoin, as I shall have to refer to them more than once during this narra- tive), and arranged with them to start out as soon as possible, so as to enable us to beat the tiger up during the heat of the day, for at that time these animals are usually in a lazy mood, and dis- inclined for exertion, and therefore move more slowly and quietly when disturbed than would be the case in the cool of the later af- ternoon or evening. Just at this time, one of my sisters happened to be staying at my house on a short visit, and expressed a great desire to accom- pany me on my elephant to the hunt. I was at first loth to let her take the risk, for there is always a certain risk in tiger shooting, but eventually consented, because, in the first place, this would in all probability be the only opportunity she might ever have of seeing anything of the kind, and also because I was to use on that occasion a well-known fearless and staunch female elephant, named "Kali,"* which had faced many a tiger without flinching. As a rule elephants will not do this, and are great cowards in the presence of a tiger. Our elephants and guns were despatched at once, in charge of some of our servants, to a certain village which I had named, and we followed later on in our buggies and carriages. On our ar- rival at the village, we found the servants and elephants awaiting us; and, mounting the elephants, and escorted by our gun carriers, we followed the native guide whom my shikari had sent to show us the way, and proceeded very quietly to the place in the forests where he and the assembled beaters were awaiting us. After a whispered conversation with him, in which I ascertained all I de- sired to know about the tiger's movements, and the lay of the forest, with its streams, hills and cover, I decided upon the direc- *Pronounced Kahlee.

TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. 325 tion in which I would drive Mr. Stripes, as we usually designate the tiger in India. Sending off the shikaris and beaters by a round-about path, so as not to disturb the animal, to a certain place from which I intended the beat to start—about half a mile away—I arranged the positions which our three elephants should occupy, so as to get the tiger well between the beaters and our- selves. My elephant took the center post, with Gascoin's on the right, at a distance of about one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards away, and Lloyd's on the left somewhat further off, so as to cover a thickly wooded knoll for which the tiger might perchance make. As soon as the shikaris and beaters had reached the place to which I had sent them, they spread themselves out in a long, curved line, so as to more completely cut off any retreat on the tiger's part, and then commenced to beat, shouting, howling, banging small drums, striking trees and underbrush with long, heavy stiaks, some armed with spears or old flint-lock muskets, and all creating a din which increased as the line approached, and which sounded as if pandemonium had been let loose. We, on the other side of- Mr. Stripes, eagerly and noiselessly awaited his appearance. I might here say that if a tiger is beaten up in the proper direction, by which I mean the direction which the animal, with his intimate acquaintance with the forests and its cover, would of his own free choice take if disturbed in any way, he will commence to slink off as quietly as he can, in order to avoid detection, just as soon as he hears any noise from the oppo- site side. If, however, he happens to be beaten up in the wrong direction, and hears a noise proceeding from the side toward which he would prefer to go, he will often remain crouching and concealing himself in the bushes, in the hope that those coming along will pass him by undetected, and so leave the way open for his retreat, but should a number of yelling, noisy beaters suddenly come upon him and disturb him, he will jump up with a roar in order to frighten them off, in which he is, of course, always suc- cessful, and will then either break back through the disorganized line of men, or rush forward with continual roars in order to es- cape the danger in which he believes himself to be. The agility exhibited on such occasions by the forest-dwelling natives, in find- ing speedy safety among the branches of the numerous trees all

326 IMPROVEMENT ERA. around them, is, I believe, unequalled except by monkeys. Old hunters in India claim, and, so far as my own experience goes, rightly so, I think, that if a tiger speaks in a beat, that beat has been mismanaged or undertaken by inexperienced persons, and that it is a sure indication that the tiger has been driven away from instead of toward his home or such cover as he would ordi- narily seek. Tigers, except they happen to be man-eaters, which is of com- paratively rare occurrence, will not attack human beings, unless they think that they are being attacked first, and then they will charge in self defense, so that beaters are as a rule safe when there are several men together, even when beating up man- eating tigers. Indeed, it is not often that beaters even see the tiger in a well-managed beat, until the brute has been shot, be- cause he invariably slinks away just as soon as he hears any noise about, and is therefore almost always moving considerably ahead of the line of men who are beating him up. In all my thirty years' experience of tiger and other large game hunting, I have rarely heard of a man being mauled or wounded by any animal in a beat. As the noise of the oncoming line of beaters grew louder and louder, the excitement became more and more intense, and we on the elephants were eagerly scanning the jungle in every direction in front of us for the appearance of the tiger, when my sister suddenly noticed a movement to our right front, as if something was gliding about among the rocks and undergrowth, and, on quietly pointing this out to me, I at once saw that a very large and powerful tiger was on the move, making for a small hill not far from where Gascoin was posted. According to the etiquette of shooting in India, it is always considered the right of the sportsman before whom an animal breaks cover, to have the prior shot, even though others may have seen it first, and first blood in- variably secures the animal as a trophy; consequently, I could not fire, notwithstanding that I was not more than a hundred yards away from the disappearing tiger. I tried every means short of calling out, to attract the attention of Gascoin, who was intently watching for the animal in all directions, when suddenly he also caught sight of Mr. Stripes, and fired; but, being too hurried and

TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. 327 the animal being partly concealed by the thick undergrowth, he missed him, the bullet passing just over his back, raising a cloud of dust. I was now free to fire, and just as the tiger began to mount the hill, I put a bullet into him which brought him down for a moment, but quickly picking himself up, he resumed his climb. Lloyd then made a capital shot, at a very long range,and rolled the tiger down the hill into a deep and densely wooded ''nullah," or stream below. Upon this, I gave the signal for our elephants to advance, and, realizing that we were now to face a savage brute, made doubly dangerous by his wounds, I made my way over to Gascoin, and requested him to go on and head the tiger up the nullah, in case the animal might have gone in that direction, while I decided to put my elephant into the nullah itself at the very place where the tiger had fallen into it, and there to search for him, and I fully expected to find him badly wounded, and to have some trouble with the infuriated beast. Kali was then taken down the steep and thickly wooded bank into the rocky bed of the stream, which at that (the hot) season of the year was almost dry, and it was not very long before she gave the elephant's usual sign of having scented the tiger, by a peculiar quick, shuffling move- ment of her legs, which had the effect of causing us on her back to hold on as tightly as we could fo as not to be thrown off, and also by striking the ground several times with the end of her trunk, each blow accompanied by short, dull, hollow sounds. Mr. Stripes, however, although wounded, had clearly not been so much injured as to cripple or disable him to any very great extent, his footprints on the sandy portions of the dry bed of the stream showing that he had made his escape up the nullah in the very direction in which I had sent Gascoin. As the latter had taken a direct line, while the nullah wound about considerably, I felt sure that the tiger would be easily headed off and brought up to a halt somewhere on his path. Kali was then made to move rapidly up the course of the nullah, both because the tiger might perhaps have found cover somewhere along its banks, and also to render Gascoin any assistance he might be in need of, should he hap- pen to suddenly encounter Mr. Stripes on his way. Lloyd, too, was coming up on his elephant from the left,but his position at the com- mencement of the beat necessitated his taking a long round be-

328 IMPROVEMENT ERA, fore he could well join us. My sister was pale with the excite- ment and danger of the situation, but, mastering her feelings, held one of my double-barreled rifles ready to hand to me as soon as I should require it. The other was in my hand. After some dis- tance the nullah made a sudden wind to the left, and here I di- rected my "mahout," or elephant driver, to take Kali up the bank again, thinking that this would be about the place I should most probably find Gascoin, and my conclusion turned out to be correct; for, upon Kali ascending the bank, Gascoin's elephant was seen to be standing some sixty yards off, higher up the stream, to the left, in some very heavy undergrowth, and Gascoin himself to be level- ing his rifle in the direction of the nullah. A shot immediately afterward rang out, followed by a terrific roar, and my sister and I saw a magnificent charge made by the wounded and savage tiger, as, rushing out with tail outstretched, every hair bristling, ears laid back, and mouth wide open, he sprang at Gascoin's elephant, which at once showed the white feather by turning completely round and receiving the spring of the tiger on her hind quarters. I had endeavored to check this rush by planting a bullet be- hind the tiger's shoulder, but the rifle I used was a light one, and the bullet small, so that the shock to the brute was not sufficiently great to stop him. My heavier rifle was in my sister's hands, and I had reserved it for the emergency that I felt would soon compel its use. Gascoin's elephant tried her best to throw the tiger off her by rapidly swinging herself round, in doing which she must either have crossed her fore legs, or she got one of her feet entangled in the surrounding thickets, resulting in her com- ing down with a crash onto her side. Gascoin, and his shikari who was with him on the elephant, as also his mahout, were thrown off, the former, however, never letting go the hold of his rifle. I at once called on them all to run behind my elephant for pro- tection, and to get down into the bed of the stream, while I tackled the tiger with Kali; and this they did. Gascoin, however, had had a nasty fall, and only just managed to get to the water when some of the beaters came up on the opposite bank and bathed his head and hands. It was very fortunate for him, and for the two natives with him, that the infuriated tiger was so much taken up with the elephant as to fail altogether to notice them,

TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. 329 they having been luckily thrown on the side of the elephant farthest away from him. I now desired to draw the tiger's atten- tion to Kali, and in this way render assistance to the other ele- phant, which was having a bad time of it, having been mauled and torn down the cheeks and face where the brute had at once attacked her as she fell. Kali was then pushed well forward till the tiger suddenly caught sight of her, when, leaving Gascoin's elephant, the plucky animal, with another terrific roar, made a furious charge on his new foe. Kali scarcely moved, she merely planted her feet more firmly down, and lifting her trunk high in the air, trumpeted out her challenge. Before the tiger could make his spring onto Kali's head, I seized my heavier rifle, and planted a quick shot between Mr. Stripes' neck and shoulder, jast as he crouched for the spring, which luckily bowled him clean over. Im- mediately afterward, he received his quietus from a bullet fired by Lloyd, who had just then come up on his elephant, although some- what late to participate to any extent in the most exciting part of the hunt. The elephants were then made to sit down, to enable us to get off and examine Mr. Stripes, and I think he was one of the largest and most powerfully made, as he was one of the pluckiest and gamiest tigers I had ever seen. "Chuppatties," or large, round, soft cakes of flour and water, about twelve inches in diameter, and half an inch or more in thickness, were then produced by the elephants' attendants, and, after having been smeared in the dead tiger's blood, were given to the three animals to eat, the native mahouts believing that by giving elephants such blood they be- come braver and stancher and more fit for tiger hunting. Gascoin had by this time sufficiently recovered from the shock of his accident, and had joined us in order to have a look at the tiger also, exhibiting, however, some cuts about his face and hands which told of the severity of his fall. The two natives who were thrown off the elephant at the same time got off altogether un- scathed. There was now nothing left for us but to return home. The tiger was slung up on a stout pole, and carried by a number of beaters to the village, where our horses and vehicles, in charge of our native grooms, were awaiting us, and there the tiger skinned, and the skin stretched and dried under the supervision of my head

330 IMPRO VEMENT ERA. shikari and one of my "chupprassies" or orderlies, who had learned exactly how this should be done. As soon as the beaters had been collected together, they were paid for their services, while the owner of the bullock which the tiger had killed, was fully com- pensated for his loss, after which we drove back to our station, happy in having participated in this exciting and successful tiger hunt. In conclusion, I desire to add a few words of justification for tiger hunting, because there are people who are opposed to the taking of any animal life whatever, and who may therefore look upon the destruction of even the fierce and crafty tiger or pan- ther as an act of wanton cruelty; but I believe that if they could see, as I have often seen, the distress and misery, not to say the loss of life and property, which such animals bring upon the poor, defenseless natives of the forest villages of India, they would view the extermination of such pests as an act deserving com- mendation rather than condemnation. Tigers do a great deal of damage to village cattle, and their depredations have in some localities caused once flourishing villages to be almost or alto- gether deserted. The agricultural communities in India are as a rule very poor, and live a sort of hand-to-mouth existence. A "ryot/' or cultivator, will not unfrequently possess but two plow bullocks, and the loss of even one of these is a very serious matter indeed for him and for his family. It means that either his land must be fallow and uncultivated, and that would be starvation for him, or else he must go to the neighboring "sahukar,"or money-lender, who is always a veritable Shylock, and never fails to claim his pound of flesh. Taking advantage of the ryot's predicament, the sahukar will obtain a bond from him at a high rate of interest, often for a sum in excess of that loaned to him, and demand at the same time as security the mortgage to him of all of his debtor's crops, until the debt is liquidated. When, therefore, a man once gets into the meshes of the local Shylock, he is seldom free from them afterwards. Unfortunately, the natives of India are at no time a very thrifty people, while in some respects they are very foolishly extravagant. For instance, they often get hopelessly involved in pecuniary difficulties, because custom among them demands the ex- penditure of large sums of money upon the marriage ceremonies

TIGER HUNTING IN INDIA. 331 of their children, altogether out of proportion to their means, and equivalent, sometimes, to the income they could obtain in the pursuit of their ordinary avocations of life in from six to eight and even ten months' time. But—as Kipling says—that is an- other story. The government of India, being fully aware of the depredations which such animals as tigers, panthers, bears, and wolves commit, and the consequent loss to life and property which is entailed thereby upon the residents of villages in and bordering upon the vast forest tracts in that country, has for years past offered certain fixed rewards for the destruction of such animals, as well as special and liberal rewards for the destruction of man- eating tigers and panthers. To see the joy evinced by villagers when one of these pests that have brought terror to their villages has been killed, is in itself sufficient compensation for the risk, trouble and expense in- curred in its destruction. These man-eating tigers have some- times carried off from sixty to a hundred men, women and children, in a season, and often blocked forest roads so completely that vil- lagers have been almost starved out, being afraid to visit neigh- boring market towns,or other local marts, in order to procure sup- plies; and I have on occasions been asked by landed proprietors to visit their localities, and by destroying the tiger, free the people from the terrible predicaments in which they happened to be. The circumstances under which tigers, and sometimes pan- thers, become man-eaters is, I think, still a disputed question, but I have my explanations on the subject which appeal to me as be- ing correct, and in which I am supported by some respectable au- thorities on Indian natural history. This, however, is not the place in which to discuss the point. 1 have merely offered these concluding remarks in order that by describing the great danger and injury that thousands of poor natives have to endure from the depredations of wild animals in India, I might be able to vindicate the position I assume, namely, that the destruction of such ani- mals is a justifiable, and even commendable, act under the circum- stances. On one occasion, I had the satisfaction of shooting a huge tiger that had been the cause of terrible loss in a certain village, having in a singb season killed about sixty milch buffaloes while grazing in the forest pasture lands around it, all young and