The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

Book excerpt: Most of Jim Corbett's books contain collections of stories that recount adventures tracking and shooting man-eaters in the Indian Himalaya. An exciting narrative of a leopard that spread terror through five hundred square miles of the hills of the United Provinces, The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag also takes a detailed look at life in the Garhwal region of India. The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag is often considered the most exciting of all Corbett's jungle tales. He gives a carefully-detailed account of a notorious leopard that terrorized life in the hills of the colonial United Provinces. This story represents Corbett's most sustained and unique effort. The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag is also an ode to the people who inhabit the hills and the resilience with which they face the hardships that assail them.