The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, published in 1948 was only the second book of its author, Jim Corbett (July 25, 1875 – April 19, 1955). He wrote his first book, Man-Eaters of Kumaon two years earlier when his friends requested him to relate his hunting experiences in writing. So the hunter and naturalist became a celebrated author at the age of seventy-one. Unfortunately, he lived nine more years during he wrote a few more highly successful books. He donated the royalty of his first book for the treatment of the soldiers who lost their vision during World War II. The royalty of the remaining books was donated for the welfare of the staff of his publisher, Oxford University Press.
We have recorded for our print-disabled listeners The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag by Jim Corbett. This is a part of the Bengali version of Jim Corbett Omnibus first printed in Shraban, 1383 in Bengali translation by Mahasweta Debi. Our recording is adopted from the third reprint of Jyaistha, 1393
The man-eater killed more people than recorded. This notorious leopard, an “evil spirit” in popular belief, killed 125 people on record between 1918 and 1926 in an area of 500 square miles around Rudraprayag. It narrowly escaped several attempts by Jim Corbett by sheer force of fate. It digested with little difficulty arsenic, strychnine and cyanide. A leopard was killed with the help of a jinn-trap by Corbett in 1925, but it was not our hero. Corbett had to return home after some futile hunts in 1925.
Corbett returns in 1926 to Rudraprayag for the kill again. He went searching for the leopard night after night, mostly alone, facing rough weather and the threatening beast. He imitated the leopard’s call to provoke it, but it finally helped it to find a mate. The leopard was finally killed on May 1, 1926 when “he (Corbett) had fired one accurate shot.” Its length was between pegs 7 feet, 6 inches and over curves 7 feet, 10 inches, measured 12 hours after death.
This audio book is about 6 hours and 16 minutes long. We cannot provide this audio book to listeners without any print disability. However, you may listen to our recording of Powalgarher Kunwarsaheb from the same Jim Corbett Omnibus in Bengali translation.
