The very 1st thing which Tobin and l did was to understand the movements of our adversary . All 3 of the brute's victims were killed in the forested area spanning between Darjeeling and Siliguri . Till now , it had targeted a wood cutter , a child and a Hindu priest who liked to meditate in the forest . All the corpses of the brute's victims were missing flesh from the buttocks ; the unmistakable sign that they had run afoul of a royal Bengal tiger , which had turned man eater .
We employed the Garo trackers of Sundar Raj Shikar Limited to aid us in narrowing down the area where the brute was lurking .
Time and again ... both Kawshik and l have sung mighty praises in our articles on African Hunting Forums about the prowess of Garo trackers . And this article is no different , dear readers .
I consider Garo trackers to be the most competent of trackers in this entire world . These tribal hill people who live(d) in the hilly regions of West Bengal were terrifyingly competent at their tasks. To quote good old
@Kawshik Rahman , " It was as if Garo trackers had been blessed by Divine Providence itself with the innate ability to track down any beast... large or small . "
Today , was no different . It was not long before the trackers were able to find the paw prints of the brute . Below , l have provided a photograph taken by myself of the paw prints of a man eating royal Bengal tiger.
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The trackers were soon able to narrow down a large patch of forested area where they absolutely GUARANTEED us that the man eating royal Bengal tiger was lurking . We then decided that the best course of action was to organize a beat , in an attempt to flush out the royal Bengal tiger towards us . I saw to gathering 5 dozen local villagers to organize a beat for the next day , while Tobin saw to having a brace of Macchans constructed to allow us to shoot at the brute from an elevated position.
Below , l have provided a photograph taken by myself of a large group of beaters prior to the commencement of a beat.
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Below , l have provided a photograph taken by myself of Kawshik's Nepalese gun bearer , Rishi Chokroborti building a macchan .
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Below , l have provided a photograph taken myself of what a finished macchan looked like , back in those days.
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We then enlisted the help of young Clay Quiah , a junior professional shikaree working for Sundar Raj Shikar . Clay was armed with an Indian Ordinance Factories .315 calibre bolt rifle , loaded with 244 grain soft point cartridges and he was assigned to " beat duty ". This meant that Clay would have to stay behind the line of beaters with his rifle during the entire duration of the beat , in order to protect the beaters, lest the royal Bengal tiger choose to attack the beaters instead of trying to flee from them and getting flushed out towards the shooters .
( Whilst this is a rare occurrence , l have been unfortunate enough to experience this mishap , more than once during my 10 year career . )
Below , is a photograph kindly provided to me by Kawshik , of Clay Quiah standing over the head of a large water buffalo shot by 1 of his clients , after the head had been severed for preparation for mounting . The water buffalo had been shot with a .458 Winchester magnum calibre Birmingham Small Arms bolt rifle .
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Below , l have provided a simple drawing of how a beat for a royal Bengal tiger used to work , back in those days.
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With everything organized , the next day , early in the morning , the beat had commenced . Tobin and l waited nervously in our respective macchans . Tobin was armed with his Fabrique Nationale .423 calibre Mauser bolt rifle , loaded with 347 grain RWS soft point cartridges . I was armed with my " 12 Bore DBBL Made In Belgium " , loaded with a 2.5 inch Eley Grand Prix Lethal Ball cartridge in each barrel .
For 3 hours , we kept hearing the loud drumming and flute playing by the beaters as they moved increasingly closer towards our direction . If the beaters were getting closer towards us , then that meant that the royal Bengal tiger was getting closer towards us , as well .
More time passed . I looked over at Tobin's macchan and saw that my friend was nervously looking over at my macchan . We exchanged glances and even though we did not say a word to each other , we were both deeply worried about the exact same thing :
What if the royal Bengal tiger had escaped the beat , by hiding in a cave somewhere WITHIN the area which the beaters were combing through ? It HAD happened to us before with another royal Bengal tiger and what was to stop this man eater from doing the same thing ?
"No", l convinced myself. The chances of something like this occurring today we're astronomical.
True enough , our worries were unfounded . There , moving silently through the foliage , Tobin and l saw the man eater . He was a huge brute at least 9 feet in length and he was quietly moving towards the direction of our macchans .
Tobin flicked off the safety catch of his Fabrique Nationale .423 calibre Mauser bolt rifle and l readied my Belgian shot gun . 50 yards , 45 yards , 40 yards , 35 yards , 30 yards... the brute was getting closer. He could not let him escape .
Mr. Vidya C Shukla had given us a direct order. When the royal Bengal tiger was within 25 yards of us , Tobin and l jumped to our feet and stood up , snapping up our guns to our shoulders . As the brute looked up to acknowledge out presence , we did not give him much of a chance to react. I instantly fired off both barrels of my Belgian shot gun ,at it's head , right between the 2 eyes . Tobin fired an entire magazine from his .423 calibre Mauser bolt rifle ( 4 cartridges ) at the head of the brute , simultaneously. No body knew how to work the bolt of a bolt rifle faster than dear old Tobin Stakkatz. The brute already fell to the ground before Tobin had gotten off his 3rd shot . But ... there is no kill like over kill .
Tobin hastily loaded 4 more cartridges into the magazine of his Fabrique Nationale .423 calibre Mauser , while l broke open the breech of my Belgian shot gun and turned it up side down , to dump out the 2 empty cartridge cases. I quickly loaded in 2 more 2.5 inch Eley Grand Prix Lethal Ball cartridges and snapped shut the breech of my shot gun . We cautiously approached the lifeless form of the brute , with our guns trained on it . What if it was merely acting dead , and was really just waiting to pounce on us , as we drew closer to it ? However , our concerns were unfounded . True enough , the man eater was slain .
I breathed a sigh of relief , as Tobin put a camel cigarette into his mouth and lit it with his old G.I Zippo lighter . He chuckled at me and said " I only got 1 question , buddy . The boss told us to bring back this thing's head . How the hell do we show the boss a tiger head which looks like THAT ? We completely shot it up ! " .
True enough ; our gun fire had completely made a mess of the royal Bengal tiger's head . But then again , with 2 Eley Grand Prix Lethal Ball bullets and 4 Mauser bullets weighing 347 grains inside it's head ... What Royal Bengal tiger WOULD have it's head intact ?
Below , l have provided a photograph taken by a local villagers of Tobin , Clay and l ( along with Sundar Raj and his family ) near the slain 9 foot brute .
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He weighed 502 pounds and had a most impressive coat .
In the next and final part of this article , l shall share a few reflections on this shikar .
