One time Maneater of Kumoan - Still Roams free

[Debasis Bose]

I have shared about the incident in this forum before.This time I managed to sight the tiger and investigate in details. Sharing the facts as gathered from Sarapdulli forest gaurds, beat gaurds and colleagues of Diwani Ram.

This is a long distance shot of the tiger responsible for the incident is attached. The tiger still roams free in the jungle, thanks to the good judgment and decision of forest department for not branding the tiger as maneater.

During my visit to Corbett in December 2012, I learned that on 22nd July 2012 a temporary forest department employee named Diwani Ram, in his late 40’s or early 50’s, short and thin built, hard of hearing was working as a beat guard in the sarapdulli range for about 20 odd years with forest department was mauled, killed and partly devoured by a tiger. From that day we named the tiger as Diwani Ram. Decided to find out what exactly happened and wanted to see and photograph the tiger. Thereafter, I made it a point to book myself into Sarapdulli FRH for least two nights during my every future visit to Corbett, till I see the tiger. In following visits, during my each stay I talked to most of the range beat guards and forester and collected as much information as I could.

From information, it was evident that Diwani Ram was a courageous man and was not afraid of wild animals, even tigers. Based on the version of the beat guards and the forester constructed what exactly transpired on the fateful day. Later, even the ranger confirmed me about the incident. During rainy seasons Ramganga river’s crystal clear ice and spring water turns muddy as the river water mixes with rain water flowing down the mountains carrying mud and silt with it. The Sarapdulli forest range quarter is situated on the bank of river Ramganga and all the water need for the resident forest employee of the range quarters is pumped from the Rāmgangā River. During the rainy season, to avoid the muddy water these forest employee visit nearby springs / rocky stream to collect clean water. Barsoti sot that has a stream of cleaner water than the rest of the streams during the rainy seasons is situated about a km from Sarapdulli range quarter towards Dhangari. On the fateful day the beat guard Diwani Ram decided to go to Barsoti sot. The person (forest department employee, name withheld) whom Diwani Ram last spoke to informed me that on 22nd July 2012 it was between 2.30 to 3.00 pm Diwani Ram told him that he is going to Barsoti Sot to clean his clothes and get drinking water, that were Diwani Ram’s last words and he claims he was the last person who saw him and spoke to him. When Diwani Ram did not return till sunset, the same person informed his colleague that Diwani Ram had not yet returned, so the two of them decided to go in search of him. Armed with a torch and one stick the two fellows (name withheld) went to Barsoti sot, by the time they reached the spot it was already dark. One of the fellows kept calling for Diwani Ram the other was checking the area with the torch light. At the boulder on the bank of the Barsoti sot about 20-25 meters from the main Dhikala Dhangari road, the two fellows could spot Diwani Ram’s clothes and water container. They then went closer to the boulder and were terrified to see splashes of blood and the pug marks of tiger. They immediately guessed what may have happened and hurriedly returned back to the Sarapdulli range quarter and informed the head office in Ramnagar about the incident. By then it was already 8 pm in the night, so nothing much could have been done.

Next day at the first light, the forest department, with help of domestic elephants, went in search of Diwani Ram. A few hundred meters from the spot where the clothes of Diwani Ram were lying they discovered the body of Diwani Ram, his lower portion was devoured with the tiger lying nearby and guarding the kill. The mahout with help of elephant tried to shoo away the tiger but the tiger was not in a mood to leave its prey and kept growling in anger. After some difficult situation and blank gun fire by forest guards the tiger was chased away. The partially (one complete leg and other about half) devoured body was recovered by the forest department. The forest department after analyzing the circumstances of the incident, came to a conclusion that there was a possibility that Diwani Ram was squatting on the boulder which was positioned between the beat forest track used by animals and tigers and the stream, and was washing or collecting water with his head down towards the stream. As he was hard of hearing, propagated with the sound of the flowing water in the stream, Diwani Ram may not have heard the movement or the growl of tiger who found him on his path, also from behind, the squatting position may have given the tiger an impression that it was not a human rather resembled like deer or wild boar or rhesus monkey.

The forest department, based on the assumptions and analysis gave the tiger a second chance as a benefit of doubt and maintained stringent monitoring on the movement of the tiger. Luckily, the tiger did not charge or attack any other human from July till Nov 2012, prior reopening of the park. The forest department left the tiger free to roam in the jungle. Till date no further incident has been recorded and that proves the circumstances and conclusion of the forest department were correct.

Since December 2012 till December 2014, I stayed at Sarapdulli FRH four times totaling 8 nights and the 9 days and 9 evenings that I got, had dedicated to track the tiger, onetime man-eater. Twice I was very close to the tiger, as the jungle sound and my senses confirmed but never got the glimpse of him. The tiger is a huge shy male about 200 plus kg’s in weight, huge head, and stripe-less shoulders with one claw of its right forepaw angled outwards. Without mistake, the tiger can be easily identified visually or by the pug mark. On 21st of Dec 2014 about 4.30 pm, we were lazing around at crocodile point, when we heard sambar deer calls followed by chital calls from the opposite side of the river. Excitement with anticipation ran down our spines, any moment the predator may come out in the open. Time ticked by, alarm calls stopped, no sign of any predator, time was about 4.55 pm, suddenly the guide shouted “tiger, woh baitha hai lantana kay nichay – tiger sitting below the lantana bushes there”. Finally we got a glimpse of the male tiger who had killed and devoured Diwani Ram. We confirmed it was the killer of Diwani Ram as the area we spotted the territory belongs to him. We waited till 5.05 pm for the tiger to come out of the lantana bushes but he did not come out, seemed the tiger spotted us and was waiting for us to leave. We left the spot at 5.06 pm as the gates close by 5.30 pm and had to reach on time to dhikala.
Nikon D 3100, Nikor 300 mm F2.8, 2x, 600mm@f5.6, ISO 800, 1/500s

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice to know that better sense prevailed unlike the string of incidents which have happened recently in kerala and other places. In the last incident of man animal conflict involving a tiger near the kerala tamilnadu border one saw all kinds of crazy things including mobs setting govt property on fire, assaulting FD staff, High decibel campaigns from political and religious organisations, Bandhas, Rastarokhos and of course the media having a field day...all of this with one objective...kill the tiger (the animal was old and probably would become a confirmed man eater , it had already killed 2 people). Ofcourse they did kill it , although it as supposed to be sedated and captured and killing was a last resort. Im not even sure if there was even a serious attempt at sedating and capturing the animal.

what was really sad, shocking and frustrating was what people had to say through out the episode about how to solve this problem…..different people with different motives of course. In particular the catholic church and it representatives whose stand in the various anti nature campaigns of wayanad has crossed into the realm of the ludicrous for obvious reasons. They seemed to be at a broad consensus that this entire problem is the due to the insatiate hunger of the animals and the general inaction of the government in containing them and making enough land available to people. And kerala is supposed to be leading on the HDI, literacy, awareness and tolerance ratings in our country.

TFS
Roopak

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Why to call it a 'Maneater'! At the worst a ' Killer-tiger'.

Diwani Ram was very unfortunately struck by destiny on that day. Possibly being tired he was using the boulder for resting or for washing clothes at a place located close to forest track frequented by wild animals for visiting source of water or as a passage. Inevitable fate took him to to the spot, made him to sit in a crouching position at that particular moment. The tiger thought it as a four-footed prey....langur, monkey included.

In Sundarbans, may be only about 25 percent tigers are dreaded maneaters. But occasional killing of man by other tigers does take place. The crab-catchers who are issued permits to enter the forest and stay in boat berthed in the rivers are only permitted angling/catching crabs in riverwater and are not permitted to land on the banks/ riverbed. Some of these fishermen grossly violate the terms of permits and land on the mudflats during lowtide and locate crab holes and push stick or rod to catch crabs in this easy way. Most of the tiger attacks on the crab-catchers take place during this time as they crouch and look like a four footed prey....rhesus monkey included, who are also roaming on the mudflats in search of food.

Diwani Ram's tragedy could not be averted, at least wiser sense prevailed and the death penalty was not given to the Corbett tiger.

The tiger looks healthy and normal. An eventful day for you.

Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Debasis Bose]

Agree Saktida, the title "Killer Tiger of Kumoan" would have been better.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good writeup Debasis! I agree with dada that easily people brand a tiger as man-eater. May be due to the stories of Jim Corbett that we have read and perhaps due to our fear, there may be a proclivity of people to brand tigers as man-eater. There ofcourse is always pressure from the locals who fear that if there is indeed a man-eating tiger on the prowl, then all illegal entries into the forest would be blocked. So they put pressure on the forest department to eliminate the tiger.

There have been also cases where certain forest officers in the past were known to brand tigers as man-eaters so that they can hunt them. There have been a few hunters who have move throughout India and hunt tigers and leopards, by branding these as man-eaters or problem animals. One can often see these fellows posing for photos with the slain tigers and leopards.

Many times when someone stumbles on a sleeping predator, they get killed. The tiger or leopard then moves away and later when it comes back to the spot, it has lost consciousness/recollection (for want of better word) of the victim as a human being. For the tiger, the dead body is just food to be eaten. At times, the body is not even eaten by the tiger, but by a passing jackal or hyena or by a wild boar. People immediately assume that the victim has been eaten by the tiger and brand it as a man-eater and kill it.

The tiger and mostly leopards (as leopards can comfortably stay close to human settlements) are known to mistake a defecating individual as a prey and attack and kill it. I have investigated may such cases of leopard victims in the last couple of years. Even people do mistakes. For example, hunters (and these days poachers) are known to fire at their friends or other poachers mistaking them for a herbivore and killing them. I was told of such instances in Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha where poaching is rampant and in many other places. So one mistake of killing a person should always be forgiven and the animal shouldn't be branded as man-eater and killed.

PS: I felt sad about the recent incident in Nilgiris which Roopak has mentioned.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Thanks for sharing the detailed account of that incident. It is good that the forest department didn't immediately name the tiger as Man-eater.
Mostly the villagers and the local politicians pressurise the Forest department officials to take action (kill the tiger or shift to zoo). In this case, Diwani Ram being a forest department employee, the local villagers were not involved. So the FD could use its own judgement, which saved the tiger.

If locals are not allowed to interfere within the working of the Forest department, then tigers would have got a fair chance, which is not the case as Roopak has mentioned in Kerala and other parts where villagers are involved.

Also it can be observed that the even when the body was in the jungle for the whole night, the tiger had only eaten one full and one half leg and not the entire body. So along with the other factors mentioned it shows that it was not a dreaded man-eater. Thanks for sharing.