Please like, share, and subscribe! This is an abridged version of one of Jim Corbett's most harrowing stories of a man-eating leopard in India.

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Welcome back to Scary Animal Attacks. Today’s episode takes us to a very unique location in time, geography and culture. In the Indian state of Uttarakhand the south flowing water shed of the Alaknanda River carries water from the Himalaya Mountains into the Ganges River and out to the Bay of Bengal. The upper stretches of this river starts in some of the most rigorous and challenging terrain on the planet. The mountains soar to over 20,000 feet in elevation with Nandi Devi reaching nearly 26,000 feet high. The terrain here drops from the highest peaks to around 2500 feet in about 90 miles in distance. This is an average drop of 256 vertical feet for each mile traveled. The deep ravines and valleys host one of the most diverse arrays of plants on the planet. Pine trees dominate the higher elevations and give way to more tropical trees as the elevation decreases. Here the climate ranges from tropical in lower elevations to glacial near the mountain peaks and both climates influence the area in between at various times of year. This area has been cultivated for thousands of years and in places is terraced to create flat areas for farming and ranching. The patches of wilderness and forests between the agrarian areas are still host to wildlife, both beautiful and dangerous.
In the mountains, the Rivers Mandakini and Alaknanda meet and form the headwaters of the Ganges River. This area is fraught with danger but the danger doesn’t stop with the cliffs or rivers. The animals of this area are fierce and powerful. Tiger, bear and leopard attacks in this area are rare but do occur and are named after the location they terrorize with their predation on humans. Tigers will frequently become predators of humans due to loss of health and potency in catching their normal prey. Leopards, however, differ because they will scavenge food when needed to survive.
Some Hindus cremate their dead and pour the ashes into the Ganges River so that the remains travel to the sea. In times of famine or pestilence, these ceremonial rites are modified to include the dumping of dead bodies off of cliffs after cleansing by a burning coal being placed in the mouth of the dead.
In the event that environmental stressors combine with a famine or disease in the human populations, leopards will have many human corpses to scavenge at the bottom of the cliffs. After the disease or famine resolves itself, the leopards may be deprived of a previously reliable and familiar food source. Given their familiarity with human meat, it is easy to see how hunting them is second nature to desperate leopards.
In 1918 the world was gripped in the throes of the Global Pandemic of Influenza and no part of India was spared this sorrow. One million people reportedly died from the flu, providing an abundance of human remains to any struggling leopard.
On June 9th of 1918, near the village of Bainji, the man eating leopard of Rudraprayag began his killing spree. It struck again shortly thereafter with another human kill from this area and the 50,000 residents of the 500 square mile area of the district of Garhwal were placed under curfew. They were ordered to stay inside from sundown to sunup in order to avoid being killed by the leopard.
In the daytime, business people sold goods, shephards herded their sheep and goats and people carried on in the typical fashion. But, as soon as the evening approached a hurried and frenetic energy encompassed the villagers'. Women hurried their children home, while business people quickly carried their wares inside to safety. The people were afraid and their behaviors showed it.
As light faded a hush fell over the land as people were on alert for any unusual noises or concerning developments near them. Some of them installed additional doors in their houses for alternate avenues of escape if they were attacked while they slept.
On one of the local farms, a 14 year old orphan was taken in by a farmer and was assigned the responsibilities of tending the goat herds. The boy was of the untouchable class, whose members were treated the worst in the caste system of the time, so he was made to sleep with the goats in the barn. He cordoned off a corner of the barn for himself to keep from being trampled by the goats as he slept. The farmer would shut the boy and the goat herd inside the barn each night and securely lock the door from the outside, and the boy would roll a large rock to support the door from the inside as well. The barn only had one door and no windows and the farmer slept upstairs in the comfort and safety of his house.

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