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Summary
The astonishing true story of the man-eating tiger that claimed a record 437 human lives
"Thrilling. Fascinating. Exciting." --Wall Street Journal * "Riveting. Haunting." --Scientific American
Nepal, c. 1900: A lone tigress began stalking humans, moving like a phantom through the lush foothills of the Himalayas. As the death toll reached an astonishing 436 lives, a young local hunter was dispatched to stop the man-eater before it struck again. This is the extraordinary true story of the "Champawat Man-Eater," the deadliest animal in recorded history.
One part pulse-pounding thriller, one part soulful natural history of the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, No Beast So Fierce is Dane Huckelbridge's gripping nonfiction account of the Champawat tiger, which terrified northern India and Nepal from 1900 to 1907, and Jim Corbett, the legendary hunter who pursued it. Huckelbridge's masterful telling also reveals that the tiger, Corbett, and the forces that brought them together are far more complex and fascinating than a simple man-versus-beast tale.
At the turn of the twentieth century as British rule of India tightened and bounties were placed on tiger's heads, a tigress was shot in the mouth by a poacher. Injured but alive, it turned from its usual hunting habits to easier prey--humans. For the next seven years, this man-made killer terrified locals, growing bolder with every kill. Colonial authorities, desperate for help, finally called upon Jim Corbett, a then-unknown railroad employee of humble origins who had grown up hunting game through the hills of Kumaon.
Like a detective on the trail of a serial killer, Corbett tracked the tiger's movements in the dense, hilly woodlands--meanwhile the animal shadowed Corbett in return. Then, after a heartbreaking new kill of a young woman whom he was unable to protect, Corbett followed the gruesome blood trail deep into the forest where hunter and tiger would meet at last.
Drawing upon on-the-ground research in the Indian Himalayan region where he retraced Corbett's footsteps, Huckelbridge brings to life one of the great adventure stories of the twentieth century. And yet Huckelbridge brings a deeper, more complex story into focus, placing the episode into its full context for the first time: that of colonialism's disturbing impact on the ancient balance between man and tiger; and that of Corbett's own evolution from a celebrated hunter to a principled conservationist who in time would earn fame for his devotion to saving the Bengal tiger and its habitat. Today the Corbett Tiger Reserve preserves 1,200 km of wilderness; within its borders is Jim Corbett National Park, India's oldest and most prestigious national park and a vital haven for the very animals Corbett once hunted.
An unforgettable tale, magnificently told, No Beast So Fierce is an epic of beauty, terror, survival, and redemption for the ages.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Huckelbridge (The United States of Beer) showcases his storytelling skills effectively in this suspenseful look at "the most prolific serial killer... the world has ever seen," a Royal Bengal tiger that purportedly killed more than 400 people in Nepal and India in the early 20th century. The narrative's dramatic impact is lessened by endemic speculation, including attributing thoughts to the animal itself. The facts require no such embellishment to hold the reader's attention: a single tiger, prevented by a mouth wound from subsisting on its normal, more agile prey, began hunting people in 1900, kicking off a reign of terror throughout the Himalayan foothills that was ended in 1907 by Jim Corbett, a railway employee and noted hunter retained by the British government to kill the beast. Huckelbridge conducted much of his research using Corbett's own book, and corroboration of many details is lacking; Huckelbridge even presents an epilogue that attempts to validate the Champawat Tiger's body count. He is more convincing, and intriguing, in contending that the bloody episode resulted from the British Empire's "irresponsible forestry tactics, agricultural policies, and hunting practices," and was thus an avoidable disaster. Despite its flaws, this is a gripping page-turner that also conveys broader lessons about humanity's relationship with nature. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The tale of a killer tiger in the days of the Raj.In November 2018, authorities reported the killing of a female tiger that had killed at least 13 villagers in the hill country of central India. The problem of killer tigers is growing there, reports continue, because critical habitat and suitable prey are scarce. So it was more than a century ago, when, writes Huckelbridge (The United States of Beer: A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink, 2016, etc.), a tiger called the "Man-Eater of Champawat" killed a reported 436 people. And not just that; in the author's overwrought formulation, that tiger becomes "a serial killer that was not merely content to kidnap victims at night and dismember their bodies, but also insisted on eating their flesh." Well, yes; it's in the job description of a tiger that can't find a deer to bring down. Intriguingly but somewhat clumsily, Huckelbridge joins the tale of the tiger to the history of colonialism and its extractive economies, with deforestation and habitat destruction combining to make of the Champawat tiger "a man-made disaster." Surveying other such killer animals, among them a wolf or feral dog that killed 113 people in France and a Nile crocodile reputed to have killed 300, the author chases down the known facts of the tiger, which had roamed well outside its territory into the foothills of the Himalayas and was hunting the most readily available prey. Its end came at the hands of a game hunter named Jim Corbett, who tracked him down after a long search that turns purple at key moments: "And all at once Jim Corbett understands what's been done to this poor creature, a story written in malice and pain. But the number 436 leaves no room for pity, and twenty feet affords him no chance at escape." Such flourishes are unnecessary given the inherent drama of the story and the nice irony that Corbett would become a leading advocate of tiger conservation.An overwritten narrative that will be of some interest to fans of apex predators. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Man-eater. Is there any appellation for a beast indeed, the largest cat, frightening enough as an apex predator more terrifying? This is the fascinating tale of the Champawat Tiger, the most fearsome and most successful man-eater, with 436 attributed kills, ever to feast upon humans. It is also the story of the forces that created her, a perfect storm of a previous disabling wound, loss of prey species, and degradation of natural habitat. Huckelbridge (The United States of Beer, 2016) further widens the scope to include British colonialism in India and Nepal and how misguided agricultural and forestry practices, combined with rampant sport hunting, created an ecological disaster. Finally, this is also the saga of Jim Corbett, an Irishman well acquainted with the effects of British rule who, as an avid sportsman, took on the hunt for the man-eating tigress. In a concluding irony, Corbett was among the first to call attention to the plummeting tiger population. This multilayered approach to what is, at heart, the account of Corbett's long-term hunt for the famous man-eater elevates Huckelbridge's book above the sensational "true tale" to stand as a superb work of natural history.--Nancy Bent Copyright 2019 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Hucklebridge (The United States of Beer; Bourbon: A History of the American Spirit) uses the century-old story of the hunt for a human-eating tiger in British India to explore the consequences of human encroachment on wild habitats. Central to the story is Edward James Corbett, the British railway worker who achieved fame by killing the "Man-Eater of Champawat" in 1907 and went on to extinguish a series of large cats in India in the first half of the 20th century. In the process, he learned of the plight of the Bengal tiger and became a conservationist. Corbett wrote books about his exploits, then used some of the profits to fund a tiger preserve in a national park in India. Hucklebridge notes that tigers had once been cautious around humans and that only when the forests were taken for agriculture and their natural prey disappeared did they begin to hunt humans out of desperation. The author details the fearful power of a tiger attack but closes by stating that it does not match the wanton killing humans have inflicted on such beasts. VERDICT For lovers of history, nature, and adventure stories.-Caren Nichter, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Map | p. xi |
| Prologue | p. xiii |
| Introduction: Unlikely Hunters | p. 1 |
| Part I Nepal | |
| 1 The Full Measure Of A Tiger | p. 9 |
| 2 The Making Of A Man-Eater | p. 21 |
| 3 A Monarch In Exile | p. 49 |
| Part II India | |
| 4 The Finest Of Her Fauna | p. 89 |
| 5 The Hunt Begins | p. 125 |
| 6 Darkness Falls | p. 135 |
| 7 Together, In The Old Way | p. 159 |
| 8 On Hostile Ground | p. 173 |
| 9 An Ambush In The Making | p. 189 |
| 10 A Literal Valley Of Death | p. 195 |
| 11 Confronting The Beast | p. 215 |
| 12 A Moment Of Silence | p. 227 |
| 13 An Unlikely Savior | p. 233 |
| Epilogue | p. 245 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 255 |
| Bibliography | p. 257 |
| Index | p. 267 |