THE WERETIGERS

                         The belief that some people have the uncanny ability to turn themselves into tigers or into any  other animal forms they desire, is rooted in the tribal folklores  and legends. In many tribal societies of  the  North East  States of India  such belief persists. In Kandhamal too people have a firm belief in the legend of the weretigers or Palata Bagha ( in Odia ) or Kdadi mliva ( in Kui dialect ). At Raikia during our childhood  the elders of our street would recount before we cowering kids, the scary tales of some of the local people who sometimes could practice shape shifting .Out street-dwellers had warned us not to have bonhomie with  a particular woman with a tattooed face who had such talent. (Of course we did not believe it)  This  supernatural  phenomenon is also called "Therianthropy " ( "therion" means " wild beast " and "anthropos" means " human being " ) or feline therianthropy. 

                            Kutia ,Dongria and Kondh tribals mostly believe in the nocturnal migration of person's soul force into the body of tiger which is controlled by the person who is asleep at home. Both man and woman , were believed to have such ability. Famous British hunter and storyteller  Jim Corbett has also mentioned about the strange legend of weretigers in his books The Man eaters Of Kumaon. It was believed that some people turned into weretigers  to take revenge on their adversaries by killing their cattle and other domestic pets; or to  teach their rival a lesson for the wrong done to them. Anthropologists have made exhaustive study about it, but still do not vindicate the truth that a man can do shapeshifting. Anyway, the legend is still there even in this Information Age of the 21st Century.

( Writer - Dr. Pradeep Kumar Nayak )