ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

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TIGERS IN NORTHERN INDIA AND NEPAL - PART IV


i - Evolution of big game shikar in Nepal

Before the days of Maharajah Jung Bahadur, various ways were used to hunt tigers. When the Maharajah Jung Bahadur became Prime Minister in 1903, he indulged in his passion for big game hunting. He made many cold weather shikar trips to the Terai and is said to have killed over 550 tigers. In the first years, things were a bit slow:

" ... At first shikar methods were simple and primitive. Wherever Jung Bahadur camped, inquiries were made from the local villagers regarding recent kills, or where tigers had been seen or heard, and on such uncertain khabbar an area was beaten by elephants in the hope that the tiger might be inside. In those days, the number of tame elephants in Nepal was enormous, and Jung Bahadur frequently had as many as 700 for his shikar. But the uncertain methods of locating tigers did not at first produce very good results.

Later Jung Bahadur created a special service of 120 shikaris, whose duty it was to find fresh tiger tracks and other signs, to tie up kills (goats at first and later young buffalo calves), and quickly send in news of any kills. It was Jung Bahadur who first evolved and developed the ring method, which more recently has been improved and supplemented by His Highness the present Maharajah ... " (pp. 38).


j - The 'Ring' method

" ... Before attempting to describe His Highness's shooting experiences, it will help the reader to visualise the scene if a description is first given of the method almost invariably used in all big shoots in Nepal, the famous and unique 'Ring'.

This method is used only in Nepal, where it has been brought to an art, the highest pitch of perfection and a most deadly method of killing all big game. There is in fact no other country in the world where the necessary factors for the 'Ring' shoot exists, the enormous stud of shikar elephants, the trained experience and the skill of their mahouts and the shikari's, the tremendous stretches of Terai forests, and the wonderful stock of tiger and rhino.

The natural home of the tiger is the forest-clad foothills of the Churia (Siwalik) range of the Himalayas, with the enclosed duns and valleys and the adjoining forests of the flatter Terai. This great belt of tiger country stretches the whole length of Nepal, a distance of nearly 550 miles on the map, and for more than half the year it is deadly to man owing to the malignant Terai malaria. But from December to March, it is a perfect paradise, with a glorious climate, wonderful scenery, and always to the north the incredible panorama of the eternal snows towering into the sky.  

In this superb setting occur the big Nepal shoots. A wonderful organisation is employed to ensure success. For weeks before the shoot commences, rough but serviceable motor roads and temporary bridges are constructed radiating out from the various jungle camps. All the jungle paths and streams and sandy river beds are examined to see where the tigers are, for in such places they leave their footmarks. A day or two before the shoot starts, young buffalo calves are tied up as bait, in scores of even hundreds, on every likely route a tiger may take.

There are seven or eight groups of regularly appointed shikaris, each consisting of an officer (subedar), ten or twelve subordinates, and two mounted soldiers for taking messages. Every group of shikaris has ten to fifteen buffal ocalves (padahs) for tying up at suitable places. They live in temporary sheds in the jungle, primitive huts of wooden poles, leaves, and jungle grasses fastened with stands of creepers, which they quickly erect with their kukris from the abundant material all around. Between them the various groups cover the whole tract of forest for miles around the camp ... " (pp. 38).

This is a typical Nepal jungle camp:

*This image is copyright of its original author

" ... At dawn the sikaris go out and examine the padahs, tied out the previous evening. If or when one has been killed, they carefully examine pugmarks ... to see if it is a big tiger or small, or one or several. They examine the drag and the direction taken. They then quietly proceed on foot and make a large circle of a quarter to a half mile diameter, demarcating the circumference with chipped stems and grass roots as they go and are very careful to see that the drag has not gone beyond the circle. If it has, they make another one, as they must have the circle enclosing the end of the drag. This is called 'cutting the circle by the shikaris, and the final circle makes the future 'Ring' ... " (pp. 38).  


k - When the 'Ring' has a tiger

" ... Meanwhile, ..., a special messenger mounts his horse and galopps off to bring the khabbar. Sometimes motor cars are parked at central spots to accelerate the delivery of the news, and sometimes even a telephone line has been prepared and operators engaged to flash messages to the camp.

Within a very short time the news has reached the camp from all directions and where there are kills, and the day's plan of campaign is discussed and settled. Immediately a great string of 200 or 300 elephants move off in single file to the first kill, a few with howdahs, the majority with pads. The shooting party follow at leisure in cars as far as possible, and then on pad elephants.

The tiger or tigers have been approximately located by the shikaris from the direction of the drag, the nature of the cover for lying up, and the process of cutting the circle as already described. When the elephants arrive, they divide into two parties, which proceed very quietly in single file right and left along the line of the cut circle - and it is astonishing how quietly an elephant of line of elephants can move through the jungle. The rear elephants gradually drop out to take their stations at regular intervals, and finally the two leading elephants meet, and the word is passed down both sides that the circuit is completed, 'lam pugyo'. Then the order 'Mudi phira' - turn the heads inward - is passed down.   
     
The shooting party mount the elephants, and the whole circle now move inward, crushing the grasses and shrubs, and the men on their backs shouting and whistling to drive the tiger towards the centre. The circumference of the circle of the elephants gets smaller, until finally it is less than half a mile round, and the elephants get closer and closer until they are almost touching, and the tiger is surrounded by a solid wall of elephants. Then the order "Lam-tham' - stop the line - is shouted out, and the ring is complete ... " (pp. 41).

Here's a photograph of the wall of elephants:

*This image is copyright of its original author

  

l - Confronting the tiger(s)

" ... The stauncher elephants then move into the ring. Glimpses of one or more slinking forms are seen in the grass and undergrowth, when suddenly a tiger breaks cover and charges with a roar, to be met by shots from the rifle, or shouts and missiles if he charges the ring. It is the moment of climax of a culminating excitement. Backwards and forwards he dashes striving to find an escape, to a pandemonium of men shouting and elephants trumpeting, grumbling and gurgling, thumping on the ground, and occasionally, when directly charged turning tail and bolting in terror.

It is necessary to emphasise that a tiger is not normally a dangerous animal, and does not attack an elephant or a man, but once he feels cornered, he becomes a fighting mass of diabolical fury, utterly fearless of man or elephant, whom he attacks in his mad rage without a moment's hesitation. He has been known to climb a tree and hurl a (lady) shikari out of a high machan, he had been known to leap a height of 15 or 16 feet into a tall howdah and more often than not a tiger will try to break through a Ring by charging home on an elephant unless he is killed or crippled first by a well-directed shot ... " (pp. 41-42).

This is a tiger snarling (top) and preparing an attack (bottom):
 

*This image is copyright of its original author

m - The tiger attacks

" ... It must also be realised that the Nepal Terai jungles, with a fertile soil and rainfall of 100 inches, are either gigantic grass growth, frequently the height of a howday, or are a dense forest of trees, matted together with great climbers, and a thick undergrowth of shrubs and shade-bearing plants, in which, if an elephant bolts, it is almost inevitable that howdah and rider and mahout and everything on the elephant's back will be swept with a crash to the ground by a thick branch or the loop of a tough timber.

In either case it is extremely difficult to see a tiger at all until the area has been well trampled, by which time, naturally, the tiger or tigers are desperate and in a highly dangerous condition. 'It is no sport for bad shots, hasty excitable people, or those with no stomach for danger. Even the most blasé hunter is likely to experience for a second or two a sudden spasm of fear when he first hears the blood-curling roar of an infuriated tiger, and sees the great striped body launched in its charge, a thunderbolt of death and ander in mid-air. It is one of the most terrific sights in the world'.

Imagine what it must be like when, as frequently happens in the rings in Nepal, not one but four or five and, once or twice, six tigers have been trapped simultaneously in one ring! The danger and heart-bursting excitement may continue for hours, until a succession of well-placed shots finally brings the thrill and nerve-tension to an end.

This was the method used in many famous shoots in the days of Maharaja Jung Bahadure and Chandra Shumshere, including the famous shoot for His Majesty the King Emperor George V in 1911, and for the Prince of Wales ... in 1921 ... " (pp. 43).

Here are a few photographs of the visit of King George V, taken in 1911. The quality is amazing. As for the tigers. Remember most of the animals shot were immature. Some had an extended stomach, but others, like the big tiger in the last photograph, seemed empty. Also notice the differences between the tigers and the Himalayan black bears. Not all animals in the famous 'Ring' were shot. Some were captured and shipped to zoos:  

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

n - Improvements of the 'Ring' method

" ... Maharajah Joodha Shumshere has during the last 9 years evolved and introduced considerable improvements and innovations which will now be indicated ... " (pp. 43).

" ... Since Jung Bahadur's days, the number of elephants available has been considerably reduced, and it is a problem how to enclose and keep enclosed several tigers in several localities, until the shikar starts. His Highness evolved an ingenious solution of this problem. The available elephants are sent to the nearest or most convenient locality, and ring the tiger. When he has been ringed, long strips of white cloth are fixed up on small posts or trees, just in front of the ring of elephants, thus making a ring ... of white cloth, which - as experience has proved - is by itself sufficient to keep the tiger within the ring ... A few elephants are left to keep watch, and the rest go off to carry out the same operation at the next locality, and so on. It thus becomes possible to hunt several tigers or groups of tigers in a single day with a limited number of elephants, which otherwise would be impossible.

Another innovation the Maharaja has introduced shortens the period of hunting inside the ring and adds greatly to the thrill and excitement of the shikar, but it also demands a high standard of shooting. Formerly it was the custom for the Maharaja (or some favoured guest who was to shoot the tiger) to wait stationary at one point just inside the ring, while other elephants trampled the undergrowth and beat inside the ring trying to drive the tiger to soem other part of the ring, which occasionally in his fury he charged and broke, thus making good his escape. But now the Maharaja does not wait for this.

He dispenses with the beating to a fixed point, and instead himself invariably advances into the ring on his howdah elephant, supported by an elephant on either side and 3 or 4 elephants forming a skirmishing line in front. As soon as the tiger is located and starts to move, the skirmishing line withdraws, leaving the Maharaja to face and finish off the quarry alone!

By these innovations and improvements the tempo of big game shooting has been greatly accelerated, and this has enabled some phenomenal daily bags of big game to be obtained on the Maharaja's shoots, not only tiger but also bear and the great Indian rhinoceros ... " (pp. 44).


o - Why tigers were not exterminated in Nepal 

" ... In Nepal, ..., although the stock of tigers has no doubt been recuded appreciably in the past decade ..., extermination is safeguarded by two factors. One is the great expanse of broken hill forests, where the ring method cannot be used, which forms a natural sanctuary and breeding ground for tiger. The other is that with tiger country stretching along the foot of the hills for 550 miles, there is such a vast track to visit that the Maharaja can have shoots with the ring method without frequent visits to any one locality. It must of course be realised that no tiger, rhino, or buffalo may be shot anywhere in Nepal without the Maharaja's special permission ... " (pp. 45). Reply