Aug 07, 2003 10:01 AM
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(Updated Aug 07, 2003 10:18 AM)
Man eaters and Jungle Killers by Kenneth Anderson was originally published by George Allen and Unwin Ltd, London, the same firm that published all 8 books written by Anderson, in hardcover format with colorful dustjacket, photo plates and area maps.
In this book, the author relates 8 stories based on his encounters in the south Indian jungles of Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad and northern Kerala (Malabar) with man eating tigers and leopards, dangerous bears and rogue elephants.
The Marauder of Kempekarai was a man eating tiger in the Salem district. Its first victim was a poojaree. Anderson spent several days and sleepless nights tracking this animal, and at the end he found out why the tiger turned out to become a man eater. It had been shot and crippled by poachers and thus depriving the big cat of his natural prey.
The Manadur man eater was a tigress from Chamala Valley area where Anderson shot a man eating tiger previously. The locals believed that the new man eater was the mate of the one got killed.
The Crossed Tusker of Gerhetti was a rogue elephant in the Salem district. It attacked several people and a description of the elephant was then published in the Gazette before Anderson was assigned to shoot animal.
It was uncommon in southern India for leopards to become man eaters, unlike their Himalayan cousins. But a panther in Mudiyanoor and another in Sangam had started preying on humans until Anderson went after them and convinced them to change their eating habits permanently.
The chapter titled Alam Bux and the Big Black Bear deals with the story of a large sloth bear that attacked anyone on sight. Sloth bears are considered to be bad tempered animals, and this one went a little beyond that.
The Mauler of Rajanagara was a peculiar tiger that enjoyed ambushing people from behind and mauling them badly. Although it did not eat any humans, several of its victim had died of blood poisoning. Anderson went after this culprit on several occasions, but without success. At the time of his writing the story in November 1955, the mauler was still at large.
As with other books by Anderson, it is a pleasure to read and re read his stories which occurred from the late 1930s when Anderson was a young man until into the mid 1950s. As I stated before, all his books were originally published in London in hardcover format with several photographs. The recent editions of his books published in India by Rupa as paperbacks, the pictures, maps and even some of the chapters have been sadly omitted. Anderson's original English hardcover editions now commands a princely sum. His books in paperbacks are available throughout India.
Kenneth Anderson died in Bangalore in 1974 of cancer.
