Champawat tigers

Champawat was formerly the capital of the Chand dynasty rulers. The Baleshwar Temple built by the Chand rulers in 16th century is an excellent monument with marvelous stone carving works.

The present king of Kumaon is Raja Mahendra Chand of Lamakhet, he is married to Rani Gita Chand of Rina and has three children's (Rajkumari Aakanksha Chand, Rajkumari Mallika Chand, Rajkumar Aryan Chand)

Champawat was home to the Champawat Tiger.

Champawat is a small town in the Uttarakhand state in Northern India close to the border with Nepal. But in the thirties the town was close to extinction because of the exploits of the notorious man-eater - the Champawat tigress.

       When did the killings start is unclear; some accounts go as far back as 1890. However in 1903 the tigress was already such a great problem for the area, having allegedly killed more than 200 people, that gurkha soldiers of the Nepalese army hunted her all over Western Nepal. They somehow managed to get the tiger cross the border into India, where she became even deadlier - 234 victims in just 4 years. Nobody felt safe. Legends circulated that she was so brave that she hunted during the day, went around the streets and even did not hesitate to break into houses if she felt there is pray inside. Local authorities offered numerous rewards and militia went into the jungle to find her, but they met no success - the fear was so strong that even when confronted by the tiger most people were afraid to shoot her and hoped that they will manage to escape.

The Champawat Tigress was a man-eater responsible for the deaths of over two hundred people in Nepal in the early 20th Century. She was driven out by the Nepalese Army into northern India where she killed a further two hundred people. She was eventually shot by the legendary hunter Jim Corbett.

After a day or so in Champawat another victim was struck at the other end of town. Corbett was quick - he ran after the tiger mere half an hour after the incident. He followed the blood trail for about four hours until both the tigress and he managed to escape from each other; on the way he found a piece of human leg which greatly distressed him. On the next day he arranged a party of locals to make as much noise as possible on the hill with guns and drums as he waited patiently for the tigress to run away from the noise.After a series of misunderstandings with everyone he still had to run after her through the grassy fields, but finally he managed to shoot her three times with two different guns.