Man-Eaters of Kumaon (Oxford India Paperbacks)

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Summary: A Timeless Adventure Classic -- Tiger Tales (Tails?)
Review: Like many other reviewers, I read "Man-Eaters of Kumaon" many years ago, in junior high school (1951) to be exact. Corbett's book is truly unique in that it is not only a story of high adventure, hunting man-eating tigers in northern India, but it also places the reader in an era that is little-understood today: post-Victorian colonial India.
Just as fascinating as the tracking and killing of the tigers are Corbett's descriptions of the devastation of the poor Indian hill people wrought by tigers who preyed upon them. It is clear that he had respect for the helpless villagers who desperately sought his help as well as for the tigers which he was forced to kill. His writing also expresses a profound love for India.
One correction I must point out is that the hunts in this book took place in the northern hill country and forests, not in the "jungle." Jim Corbett was a keen observer of his surroundings, its wildlife, and its people. It is a window into an era that is now gone.
Hunting tigers is a dangerous game-- extremely so for man-eating tigers which have no fear of man. Alone, on foot, and armed with a double "express" rifle with only iron sights (no telescopic sights here!), the odds are stacked in favor of the tiger. To hunt a tiger once is to place one's self in grave danger but to do it again and again and again....? That takes incredible courage.
If you have never read this book, try it. It gives you a better look at hunting tigers than the old Stewart Granger movie "Harry Black and the Tiger."

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Summary: Must read
Review: One of the most gripping books I have ever read. After reading the book one can understand what made Jim Corbett the greatest hunters of all time. The book very well shows the respect Jim Corbett had for the man eaters.

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Summary: A must read
Review: Rivaled only by the writings of Peter Capstick, Corbett brings the reader with him to the extent that you too feel the wet grass, and smell the tiger behind you....

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Summary: Excellent - Again
Review: The book that opened up the great adventure of reading for me......At about age 13 I happened on this book in my grandmothers home...And this was the perfect book to accomplish that awakening....Descriptive, exciting, realistic and some insight into India of the period....Jim Corbett painted pictures with his words.....I savored reading it again.....

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Summary: Enter a Vanished World
Review: The world that Jim Corbett wrote about -- his life as a white hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards in India early in this century -- is as vanished as that of the Ancient Greeks. The Empire he believed in is gone, the beasts he stalked so relentlessly are now themselves endagered species... But there's a reason his books have remained in print for two generations. He writes without guile or pretention, revealing a great respect for the jungle and for the animals he hunts, and also providing a window into the imperial mentality -- a frank paternalism towards non-whites and villagers in particular that in these politically correct days is as refreshingly honest as it is shocking. And one other thing -- while Corbett is modest almost to a fault, he was a man of remarkable courage. Sometimes the only way to stalk a predator is to let the predator stalk you. His books have no shortage of thrills and chills.

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Summary: NOT fearless
Review: These reviews are very good, except for a factual error. Corbett was not fearless. That's what made his adventures so remarkable. Remarkable deeds done by a fearless man are even more exceptional when a man who must control his fear to do what needs to be done. In a couple of stories, Corbett mentions that he had to leave the field for periods of time due to the strain of the hunt. He was able to master his fear.

These are great stories for all ages. I first read them when I was in elementary school, and have never forgotten them.

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Summary: I learned more about tigers from this one book
Review: This book is a must read. As I have said I learned more about tigers and their ways than I have from any other book. It makes you realise that man and beast can co-exist for 99% of the time, and that it is usually man who starts the argument, and that the tigers in question were only trying to survive like any other animal. Jim Corbett really bings the Indian forests to life and involves the reader from the first hunt to the setting up of his little reserve to film tigers. We the reader sitting in our cosy arm chairs can only imagine what went though his mind as he stalked his prey for weeks on end usually seeing nothing but probably being seen by you know what, and wondering if it would be his turn to have the threads of life cut as so many other unfortunates have had done to them. A simple book with a simple tail but impossible to put down once started.

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Summary: A Bloody Good Read
Review: This book is about man-eating tigers in India and the man who hunted them. Jim Corbett was born in India, the son of a British colonial postmaster in the foothills of the Himalayas. As a boy, Corbett spent most of his time wandering in the jungle, and became not only an expert on tigers, but on all of the jungle animals and birds.When there was a man-eating tiger about, the government officials would always ask Corbett to track down and kill the man-eater (The tigers had HUNDREDS of victims!). It was a very dangerous business, and Corbett was almost killed many times. He would sit up all night over a human kill, waiting for the man-eater to come back. This book is a very suspenseful, exciting page-turner and a bloody good read!--Daniel Smith, 5th grade homeschooler

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Summary: The greatest hunting stories ever told
Review: This book, along with Col. Jim Corbett's "Man Eating leopards of Rudraprayag" and J.H. Patterson's "Man Eaters of Tsavo" are the three greatest hunting stories ever told. They belong on the shelves of every sportsman.

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Summary: Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Review: This is Jim Corbett's most famous book. There is a lot of excitement in the pursuit of alleged man-eaters. However, it is not merely as a slayer of man-eaters that Corbett was famous. Very much a man of his times, he also hunted purely for sport.

The stories of the Bachelor of Powalgarh and the Pipal Pani tiger, which were shot because they were particularly fine trophies, are very poignant. An older edition of 'Man-Eaters of Kumaon', which is in my possession, has a picture of the Bachelor lying dead with the proud hunter standing over it. The half-open eyes of the immense male tiger, staring in death, make me wonder about Corbett's real attitude towards wildlife. Contrary to popular belief, Corbett never gave up hunting for the camera like other, less famous men did in his own lifetime. He shot his last tiger when he was over 70 and became the director of a safari hunting company in Kenya when he left India after 1947 (at the age of 72).

Corbett's book is valuable for the historical reason that it describes a richness of wildlife which largely disappeared in his own lifetime. However, his observations about wildlife are largely anecdotal and through the sights of a rifle.

As George Bernard Shaw said, when a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity. The Champawat Tigress was responsible for over 400 human deaths ... but wildlife historian Mahesh Rangarajan estimates that around 80,000 tigers were killed in India alone by various methods such as shooting, poisoning, and even by the burning of areas of forests known to contain cubs, between 1875 and 1925! The extent of destruction of the tiger's legitimate prey in the same period can only be imagined. The British and Indian aristocracy did most of the tiger shooting, but the native villagers were mainly responsible for the poaching of the tigers' prey, and consequently suffered the depredations of the big cats which were deprived of their natural food supply. It has been argued convincingly in recent times that prey scarcity, more than anything else, produces man-eaters.

While Corbett half-heartedly argues the tigers' case (calling them 'gentlemen'), his horrifying descriptions of man-eaters wipe out any vestiges of sympathy that one might have for the tigers. Corbett's charming portrayal of idyllic village life, or of "humble" villagers, all virtue and no vice, should certainly be taken with a pinch of salt. It is invariably humans who bring calamity on themselves by destroying the balance of nature.