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Oil portrait in oils of George V. en.wikipedia.org
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George V takes note;3-4 tigers and a bear;. oldindianphotos.in
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King George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936), the second son of Albert Edward,
Prince of Wales (later
King Edward VII), reigned as King of the United Kingdom and
Emperor of India from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Deeply influenced by his father, George V was trained to understand administration, diplomacy, and the functioning of the vast
British Empire, including its military and civilian affairs. Among his notable imperial undertakings was his presence at the
Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911 — the grand ceremonial event where he was officially proclaimed Emperor of India. He was the only British monarch ever to attend his own coronation Durbar in India.
During this historic visit, King George V’s passion for big-game hunting found full expression in an elaborate expedition organized by the
Maharajah of Nepal,
Chandra Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, who was both the Prime Minister and the de facto ruler of Nepal from 1901 to 1929. Although George had earlier planned a hunting trip to Nepal during his tenure as Prince of Wales, it had been cancelled due to a
cholera outbreak. The 1911 hunting expedition thus became a long-awaited adventure, combining royal leisure with imperial prestige.
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George on the Howdah oldindianphotos.in
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George V'-howdah( left) dead tigers, Nepal. Oldindianphotos.in
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The Tarai region of Nepal, a narrow strip of land adjoining India’s
Gangetic plains, was chosen for the hunt. The area, particularly the Lesser Rapti Valley in the Chitawan district, was famous for its rich wildlife, including tigers, leopards, wild oxen, elephants, buffaloes, and the great Indian rhinoceros. From 1846 to 1951, the Nepalese royal family used this region as their exclusive hunting preserve. Today, this same region forms the
Royal Chitwan National Park — a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
King George’s party reached
Bhikna Thori near the Indo-Nepal border by train and then traveled 20 kilometers by motor car before proceeding on elephants into the dense forest. On the first day alone, the king shot four tigers and three rhinoceroses. The entourage, which included thousands of attendants, beaters, and over 600 elephants, camped at Sukhibar and later Kasara along the
Rapti River. The Maharajah of Nepal’s camp included nearly 14,000 people and 2,000 elephant handlers. On 24 December 1911, during a “Divine Service,” the Maharajah presented King George with a collection of over seventy live specimens of Nepalese fauna, including bears.
The hunting method employed was called the “ring.” Wild animals were driven by beaters into a selected area, surrounded by hundreds of elephants in a circular formation, and then shot by the hunters. This brutal but systematic method ensured high success rates. On the final day of the hunt, 28 December 1911, the British and Nepalese parties tallied a staggering total: 39 tigers, 18 rhinoceroses, and 4 bears — an astonishing figure by any measure.
While such hunting expeditions were celebrated as imperial sporting achievements at the time, they inflicted devastating ecological consequences. Big-game hunting by British officials and Indian royalty during the colonial era led to a dramatic decline in India’s tiger population. Tigers were shot for trophies, royal entertainment, or prestige, with little thought to conservation. By the early 20th century, tens of thousands of tigers had been killed across India. The 1911 royal hunt in Nepal symbolized the extravagance and disregard for wildlife that characterized colonial hunting culture.
In later decades, this loss became irreversible until conservation measures like
Project Tiger were launched in 1973. Ironically, the same forests that once echoed with royal gunfire now serve as protected reserves for endangered species. King George V’s hunting expedition thus stands today as a reminder of an imperial past marked by grandeur and excess — and of the environmental price paid for the vanity of kings. Part based on
https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2015/10/king-george-v-s-hunting-binge-in-nepal.html
Author:K.N.Jayaraman
