Customer Reviews

The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag (Oxford India Paperbacks)

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Corbett is a natural writer and combines his knowledge of the jungle with uncanny hunting skills to give us one of the best Indian adventures ever written.

Reading his books is not just following a maneater with a gun - it is a journey into the days of the British Raj where you will be transported into the remote jungles of Northern India, read about the simple people and their unsophisticated lifestyle. There are no villians, no suspicious characters lurking around and nobody to provide humour. You just have village folk trying to eke out a living which is sometimes interrupted by a feline with a taste for humans.

This particular book is about one leopard which terrorised a large region for many years and claimed about 420 lives. To understand what these people must have felt, it must be noted that in those days there were no high security fences, no guns or any kind of technology to track the leopard. Yet the people had to enter the forest to earn their daily bread. There is an unforgettable chapter in the book titled 'Terror' which starts something like this:

'During the day, people went about their lives as usual. Trade and commerce, transport and all other transactions went about their normal way. But as evening approached, there was a marked change in their behaviour. Pilgrims rushed towards their night shelters, businessmen closed shops abruptly and people scurried towards their homes for relative safety. No curfew was more strictly imposed. No orders to remain indoors were observed as faithfully.'

This is one of the books which shows that for writing adventure you don't need weapons or FBI investigations. All you need is a writer with a big heart who loves what he is doing and knows what he is talking about.

My brother had borrowed this book from the local British Library, and I started reading it casually, without any real interest in reading it fully. As I write this now after just having put the book down, I can assert that this is one heck of a story, narrated in a manner that is hugely engaging -- This is simply among the best books to be found anywhere.

The book was first published in 1947, and you'd expect it to be a little "dated" in its content and style, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I have acquired a newfound respect for Jim Corbett the author, and believe that his legendary stature as the fearless slayer of man-eating tigers (and leopards) almost unfairly overshadows his other qualities evidenced in this book. In an era when being a trigger-happy jungle "sportsman" was probably fashionable, Corbett comes out as a brave but reluctant hunter with deep respect for the wild, whose primary motive is clearly to prevent further loss of innocent human lives.

Being from India, it was also very heartening for me to read how well he connected with the native populace of that period, and the genuine respect and admiration which he holds for many of the Indian characters in his story. This is especially remarkable considering that this was the time of British rule in India, and much (not all) British literature from that period is at best condescending in mentioning the native population.

One of my best childhood memories is of my father telling my brother and me stories from Jim Corbett's books. I recall that we were held spellbound by the tales, never quite knowing how they might unfold until we reached the end.

Many years later I have rediscovered Jim Corbett's books, and find them even more captivating. They are not trashy blood-thirsty tales. Instead, they retell the experiences of a real man who faced danger to protect others, and who had a deep respect for nature and the animal he was hunting. Jim Corbett's ability to describe his situation is so keen, the events are absolutely vivid for the reader. I thank Jim Corbett for the pleasure he has given my father, my brother, and now also my young sons.

Another excellent book from the corbett library. Its true that fact can be stranger than fiction. And no where is it more evident than in the story of the maneater of rudraprayag.

Corbett is out to kill this very clever and wily old leopard in the second half of the 1920's. The leopard is believed to have made its debut as a man-killer following the influenze outbreak of 1918. Corbett hunts this killer over two years. In an intense battle of nerves between the best shikari that ever was and the wily leopardus, corbett's life hangs by a thread many times. On one dark stormy night, robbed of his defenses, he makes his way back to the village after a failed attempt in an experience that he terms his scariest. Another time the leopard snatches a goat right under his nose and gives him a run for his money! All and many illustrations of man's utter helplessness when a clever maneater turns against him.

In the end, corbett suceeds in putting a bullet where it truly belongs - in the maneater - to end its career. In true corbett fashion he has a soft spot for the old dead leopard, which gave him such a sporty fight. I am sure they both met again in the happy hunting grounds!

A wonderful book by a wonderful man.

The whole story is about one of Corbett's most difficult hunt. A leopard that became a maneater in the northern provinces of India, and in the foothills of the Himalayan range. This leopard, for eight years, terrorized an area of about 500 square miles. Unlike tigers, leopard's never lose their fear of humans. As a result they are cautious and only hunt at night. This particular leopard was credited with over 500 human victims, far higher then a number usually victimized by a typical maneating tiger. The leopard was quite cunning and never sought victims in the daylight hours. Corbett in his sensitive and revealing narrative takes us into a world of wonder, enchantment, fear and anxiety. The story, takes place in the 20's. The epilogue at the end of the book is very touching. Corbett, will always occupy a special place for most people who have read his books. He was special and gives us hope. In a world of 20's & 30's, that was filled with hatrate and tyranny he was a shining beacon of what is honorable and right. His examples are still relavent today and, in my opinion, amongst the greatest men/women who lived in this century.

This is not your usual hunting story. In a simple narrative that will leave you spellbound, Jim Corbett tells of his epic hunt of a man-eating leopard. Corbett was a very modest man, and there is no self-praise in this book, but his skill, patience, courage, perserverence and compassion shine through these pages. It is rare that any white man has been truly revered in India. Corbett, born and bred among the villagers of India, was considered almost a saint by his neighbours for saving them from the terror of man-eaters.

This book is right up there with my other favorites, Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, and Catch-22, and they were just fiction.

Colonel JE Corbett - hunter, naturalist and writer. This is his story of how the most notorious man-eating leopard in India was shot. The tale is recounted in an easy flowing style that captivates the reader. In the book one gets an insight into life in rural India in the mid-1920's. Colonel Corbett also manages to bring across his empathy for nature. All the ingredients of a suspense thriller and a horror movie is there. The hunter becomes the hunted, the bravery of people under the constant threat of a man-eater and the terror of loved ones dragged out of their homes by the leopard. Many a time when reading the Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, I felt the hairs at the back of my neck rising. Best of all the story is true. In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh a memorial has been erected that says "At this spot Colonel JE Corbett shot the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag". The memorial still stands to this day. I have seen it.

An extraordinarily insightful, gripping and vivid description of what life must have been like when people were at the mercy of a maneater. As in all his books, Corbett showed a gift for writing his memoirs. They are thrilling in their matter-of-fact, understated way. His knowledge and love of the Indian people, the jungle and its animals was unusual for a white man of his era. I don't know of another who put it in writing so well. That his books are not widely read by kids anymore is very sad. Corbett's fine character and sensitivity are a lesson to us all and to boys in particular.

An extraordinarily insightful, gripping and vivid description of what life must have been like when people were at the mercy of a maneater. As in all his books, Corbett showed a gift for writing his memoirs. They are thrilling in their matter-of-fact, understated way. His knowledge and love of the Indian people, the jungle and its animals was unusual for a white man of his era. I don't know of another who put it in writing so well. That his books are not widely read by kids anymore is very sad. Corbett's fine character and sensitivity are a lesson to us all and to boys in particular.

I first read this book at the age of 13 and (over the next 20 years) read it at least a dozen times since.

One's perspective changes with age and this book has been fascinating whether one looks at it as a thriller, a description of rural life in India many years ago, a combination of unmatched determination/bravery/heroism in a person, or a description of the a man-eating leopard.

Jim Corbett is one of the most fascinating people of the 20th century and his books are a very important part of the history of wildlife in India.