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In 1967 I went to teach in India. The school was not for poor children it was modeled after the English Private School. In fact the head master was a 70 year old Englishman who still lived with his mother. At the end of the school year one of the boys invited me and my fellow traveler to come to his family home and from there join them on the family’s tiger hunt. Back then tiger hunting was not illegal. I believe the law changed in 1970.

I must confess that I m not a great hunter. I had shot the odd pheasant but I had no expectations to be one of the hunters. I can't remember where we drove to now. I think it was in Northern Bihar because iIt was from there that I traveled north into Nepal and the foothills of the Himalayas.

The way they hunted was to first attract the tiger into the local area, such as that on the right. They did this by leaving a wild buffalo out in the forest and this would bring the tiger in .the pictures on the right showthe bits that were left and the vultures cleaning up the mess

This process took a couple of days and we spent the time hunting for wild boar at night and sleeping during the day. They would use a detached car headlight from the jeep and swing it to and fro through the jungle. In the end you would fix on a pair of eyes and fire. Un fortunately it takes quite a lot to kill such an animal and I remember one night it recovered and started to lash around in the back of the jeep. I don't think I ever moved so fast.

Anyway with the attack on the buffalo it was now clear that a tiger was in the vicinity. The aim was to drive the tiger between two hides in the trees. The animal used to do this was an elephant. The man in foreground was the elephant driver, quite a character. He told us with all sincerity that he had cut a tiger head off with one blow from his sword. (made for a good story though). The elephant was even more interesting. She had scars down her trunk where she had been attacked by tigers. Consequently she was quite nervous and after we had delivered the hunters to their hides

Elephant Driver

We left to get into the tiger country itself. I don't know if you can see it very clearly but on top of the elephant was something like an upturned bed. My job with the elephant driver was to find the tiger and drive him forward. This went quite well until the elephant panicked and started to run off into the jungle. Now an elephant in that state ignores the riders and just goes through the trees. I must confess that I was sure that I was going to be knocked off and be handed up as an afternoon snack for the tiger.

At this point things became a hazy and the next thing I heard was several very loud shots and then walking up very gingerly to see the kill. I must confess that it was quite a distressing sight

The Hunters leave

The Kill - thats not me in the picture