The Chuka man-eating tiger was a male Bengal tiger responsible for the death of three boys from Thak village in the Ladhya Valley in 1937. It was shot by Jim Corbett in April 1937 who noted that the animal had a broken canine tooth and several gunshot wounds in various parts of his body.
First attacks
Before becoming a man-eater, the tiger used to frequent the firetrack running between the villages Chuka and Kot Kindri, frequently attacking travellers passing along the path. In the book Temple Tiger and more Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Corbett describes two such incidents which occurred in the winter of 1936–37. In the first incident, a villager was driving two bullocks along the path to Chuka when a tiger suddenly appeared in his path. The villager interposed himself between the tiger and his bullocks attempting to drive the tiger away. Taking advantage of the diversion created in their favour, the bullocks bolted away to the village. The tiger, however, attacked the man as he attempted to flee. As it sprang on him it gripped the plough and the provisions the man had been carrying across his shoulders. Relieved of his belongings the man sprinted towards the village. One of the tiger's claws had inflicted a deep wound on his right arm. Some weeks later two men from Tanakpur were using the same path while going to Kot Kindri. The tiger again appeared. However, the men ignored it and continued to walk shouting as they went. The tiger sprang on the first man who was a carrying a bag of gur (unrefined sugar). The bag of gur caught in the tiger's mouth as it went down the hillside, leaving the man unharmed.
Start of man-eating
On a day in early January 1937, seven men and two boys were herding cattle on the outskirts of Thak village. At 10 am the cattle began to stray towards the jungle and one of the boys was sent to herd the cattle back. The tiger was hiding in the jungle and killed a calf belonging to the herd. As he was about to carry it off the boy approached close to him and was promptly killed and half-eaten. Until midday, the tiger remained close to his kills when a kakar (muntjac) spotted him and raised an alarm. The men who were sleeping at that time were woken up by the alarm. Upon realizing that the cattle had strayed into the jungle, the second boy was sent to herd them back. The tiger promptly killed the second boy, which startled the cattle into chasing away the tiger and stampeding in the direction of the village. The tiger chased the stampeding cattle and killed one of them in full view of the men. The shouting of the men and the stampeding cattle attracted the attention of the villagers who came to the spot. The mother of the second boy found her son lying dead in the jungle. Close to his corpse the parents of the first boy found their half-eaten son and the dead calf. According to Corbett, the result of being disturbed on his first kill had turned the tiger from a cattle lifter to a man-eater.
First hunt for the man-eater
Following these first killings, many sportsmen and district officials sat over baits all night on machans (tree platforms). Unfortunately the man-eater was only wounded twice with buckshot and not killed outright. Still he took another victim from Thak, this time another herdsman. On a wheat field two hundred yards above Thak, two orphaned brothers, aged 10 and 12, were grazing their cattle. Towards afternoon a cow strayed towards the jungle on the far side of the field. The boys attempted to drive it back and in doing so passed a bush where the tiger was lying in wait. Instead of choosing the cow, the tiger sprang on the older boy, killed him and disappeared with him into the jungle. The younger boy ran towards the village and a search party was organized. The tracks of the man-eater led into the Suwar Gadh ravine. Since night was closing in, the search was continued the following morning and the villagers found the boy's red cap and a few bits of torn and blood stained clothing. This was the Chuka man-eater's last human victim.