Leopard of Rudraprayag

Leopard of Rudraprayag - Jim Corbett

In my childhood, I visited a place called Rudraprayag in the Himalayan Region. The guide who was taking our family to the tour took us to a spot where Jim Corbett killed THE leopard. Has anyone heard of a memorial being erected at a spot where a poor animal was killed? Well, the legacy of the leopard is so great, that it does deserve it.

At that time, I only heard about Jim Corbett and his exploits through my grandfather. I heard that he was one of the greatest hunters and killed many man-eaters.

I did not know about the significance of that terrible beast at that time. But now I know, after reading the book - Man Eating Leopard Of Rudraprayag.  It still chills my spine that I visited all those places haunted by that spectre.

Here is the story-


There was a severe epidemic(Influenza)  in that region(Gharwal) in 1918  and many lost their lives . The bodies were to be cremated. There was no sufficient supply of firewood to burn such a large number of bodies. So they adopted a simple tradition . By placing a piece of burning charcoal in the mouth of the dead bodies, they were pushed into a valley where river Ganges flowed.

A leopard, in an area where its natural food is scarce , finding these bodies , very soon acquired a taste for man- flesh.


when the disease died down and normal conditions were re-established, the leopard, finding its food supply cut-off, took to killing human-beings and became a terrible Man-eater

The first victim of the leopard was a villager of village Benji.

 For eight years, no one dared move alone at night on the 

road between the Hindu shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath,

 for it passed through the leopard's territory, and few 

villagers would leave their houses. 


The leopard was apparently so desperate for food that it 

would break down doors, leap through windows, claw 

through the mud or thatch walls of huts and drag people 

from them, devouring them. 

Several well known hunters tried to bag this leopard. The British government offered huge rewards to kill the beast. They even sent a special army of Gurkhas after it, in addition to assigning a number of army personnel known for their marksmanship and tracking abilities. They even employed high powered Gin Traps and deadly poison to eliminate the animal, but without success.

The British Parliament requested the aid of Corbett in the autumn of 1925. 

                                       
                                                                Jim Corbett

Corbett was armed with his favourite rifle, a .275 John Rigbys received as a gift for killing the Champawat man eater in 1907, from the Governor (of U.P), Sir John Hewett. He tried his luck in several areas in and around Rudraprayag. Still no success. Never in his life, Jim spent so much time and effort to bag a single animal. He realized that the man eating leopards were more cunning and elusive than the man eating tigers. Now, when the day finally came for him to abandon the hunt and return to Naini Tal, Corbett decided to try one more night to locate the leopard, and eventually on the night of 26th May 1926 shot the dreaded man-eater at the village Gulabrai.


The Leopard of Rudraprayag  was claimed to have killed over 125 people


Corbett's notes revealed that this leopard, an elderly male, was suffering from serious gum recession and tooth loss. While skinning the leopard, Corbett found several wounds, some of them were healed, in the leopard’s body. It’s left hind foot was disabled as a result of an old bullet wound with one toe and a claw missing from it. He also found a pellet of buckshot stuck in the skin by his chest, all made by careless hunters.

In the town of Rudraprayag there is a sign-board which marks the spot where the leopard was shot. 

There is a fair held at Rudraprayag commemorating the 

killing of the leopard even today and people there often 

consider Jim Corbett a Sadhu.


This real story is a must- read for everyone.

The book Man- Eating leopard of Rudraprayag was written by Jim Corbett himself and is one of the most thrilling books I ever read.




EBOOK LINK -  https://archive.org/details/TheMan-eatingLeopardOfRudraprayag1947
                         
                             http://www.shakariconnection.com/jim-corbett-books.html