Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo (1901-1958) was the last ruler of erstwhile Korea State.[2] He was crowned as the king of Korea in 1925 and continued to rule the state until the state's merger with independent India on 1 January 1948.[3][4] He was a Rajput by caste.[5][6] He had represented the ruling Chief in the second Round Table Conference held in London in 1931.[3]
He is notorious for killing the last three surviving Asiatic cheetahs of India.[7][8] It is believed that he killed as many as 1,710 tigers in the central part of India.[9] His granddaughter, Ambica Singh, defended her grandfather claiming that he never killed big cats for fun but rather hunted only those animals who had turned man-eaters.[10] Nevertheless, while tigers are well-known for occasionally becoming man-eaters, there is no documentation of wild cheetahs ever killing a human, and the number of tigers reported to have become man-eaters in his lifetime is far less than the as many as 1,710 tigers he reportedly killed.
He died in 1958.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ Divyabhanusinh (1999). The End of a Trail: the Cheetah in India. Banyan Books, New Delhi.
- ^ "'The Story of India's Cheetahs': How the cheetah went from being hunter to hunted". Scroll.in. 17 June 2023.
- ^ a b "District Korea". Government of Chhattisgarh.
- ^ "Who was Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo, man responsible for killing India's last cheetahs?". Opoyi.com. 2022.
- ^ Dilip Patel (20 September 2022). "Will the Kuno Cheetah can die like Gujarat?". All Gujarat News.
- ^ Report on the Administration of the Feudatory States of the Central Provinces. 2022.
- ^ "कौन थे महाराज रामानुज प्रताप सिंह, जिन्होंने आखिरी भारतीय चीता को गोली मारी थी?". The Lallantop. 17 September 2022.
- ^ "Cheetah: Did India's erstwhile nobility cause its wildlife's downfall? Apply nuance, some say". Down to earth. 19 September 2022.
- ^ "India's natural history comes alive at Victoria". The Telegraph. 27 April 2017.
- ^ a b "Never killed for fun: Granddaughter of king accused of hunting India's last cheetahs". India Today. 17 September 2022.