Leopard of Rudraprayag

The Leopard of Rudraprayag was a male man-eating leopard, claimed to have killed over 250 people. It was eventually killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett.

The first victim of the leopard was from 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. The British Parliament requested the aid of Corbett in the autumn of 1925. 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 and people there often consider Jim Corbett a Sadhu.

Corbett's notes revealed that this leopard, an elderly male, was suffering from serious gum recession and tooth loss. Recent analysis of many of the man-eaters taken by Corbett and other hunters has shown a pattern, in which the animals are too sick or compromised to hunt their normal prey, and thus turn to hunting humans, who are much easier to hunt and kill than wild game. <!--(Referenced from files of the Animal Behavior Society, documenting link forthcoming).-->

In media

The animal was the subject of the 2005 BBC Two TV Series Manhunters, in the Episode......
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