The result of the Pindari raids was that Central India was being
rapidly reduced to the condition of a desert, and the peasants, unable
to support themselves on the land, had no option but to join the robber
bands or starve. It was not until 1817 that Lord Hastings obtained
authority from home to take regular measures for their repression;
and at the same time he also forced or persuaded the principal chiefs
of Central India to act vigorously in concert with him. When these
were put into operation and the principal routes from Central India
occupied by British detachments, the Pindaris were completely broken
up and scattered in the course of a single campaign. They made no
stand against regular troops, and their bands, unable to escape from
the ring of forces drawn round them, were rapidly dispersed over
the country. The people eagerly plundered and seized them in revenge
for the wrongs long suffered at their hands, and the Bhil Grassias
or border landholders gladly carried out the instructions to hunt
them down. On one occasion a native havildar with only thirty-four
men attacked and put a large body of them to flight. The principal
chiefs, reduced to the condition of hunted outlaws in the jungles,
soon accepted the promise of their lives, and on surrendering
were either settled on a grant of land or kept in confinement. The
well-known leader Chitu joined Apa Sahib, who had then escaped from
Nagpur and was in hiding in the Pachmarhi hills. Being expelled from
there in February 1819 he proceeded to the fort of Asirgarh in Nimar,
but was refused admittance by Sindhia's commandant. He sought shelter
in the neighbouring jungle, and on horseback and alone attempted to
penetrate a thick cover known to be infested with tigers. He was missed
for some days afterwards and no one knew what had become of him. His
horse was at last discovered grazing near the margin of the forest,
saddled and bridled, and exactly in the state in which it was when
Chitu had last been seen upon it. Upon search a bag of Rs. 250 was
found in the saddle; and several seal rings with some letters of Apa
Sahib, promising future reward, served more completely to fix the
identity of the horse's late master. These circumstances, combined
with the known resort of tigers to the spot, induced a search for
the body, when at no great distance some clothes clotted with blood,
and farther on fragments of bones, and at last the Pindari's head
entire with features in a state to be recognised, were successively
discovered. The chief's mangled remains were given over to his son
for interment, and the miserable fate of one who so shortly before
had ridden at the head of twenty thousand horse gave an awful lesson
of the uncertainty of fortune and drew pity even from those who had
been victims of his barbarity when living. [443]