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.
