LEOPARDS

THE FIGHT BETWEEN

Jim Corbett

Pre-reading
creatures ofthe jungle, the
Don't you think that of all the great
mysterious and majestic?
leopards are perhaps the most

Have youever seena leopard hunt its prey?Aleopard is secretive

the grass or bush
and keeps a low profile and creeps through
until it is close enough to attack.
and go out of
Did youknow that leopards are basically solitary
their way to avoid one another?
A leopard usually does not tolerate intrusion into its own rangge
between leopards can
except to mate. Unexpected encounters
fights. Read this interesting account to find out what
lead to
happens when two leopards accidentally encounter each other
on a dark stormy night?
Now read about the author
James Edward "Jim" Corbett (1875-1955) was a Colonel
in the British Indian Army whose services were frequently called
upon by the government ofthe United Provinces, to kill man-eating
leopards that were preying on people in the nearby villages of Garhwal
and Kumaon regions. Corbett was an avid photographer and a
conservationist who turned into an author after his retirement. Of
the many books authored by Corbett, Man-Eaters of Kumaon
 and The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag have become
classic tales ofjungle adventure. "The
Fight between Leopards" is
an extract from The
Man-eating Leopardof Rudraprayag.
About the essay
Apart from being a hunter, Corbett was also magnificently skilled
at writing and narrating events. Most of his books recount the
gripping episodes ofhis tracking and hunting down ofman-eating
leopards in the Himalayas. The present essay gives a carefuly detailed
account ofan accidental fight that broke out between a local
leopard
and the notorious
man-eating leopard that had terrorized the hills of
Rudraprayag for eight long years. Corbett's eyewitness account
brings alive one ofthe fiercest animal fights, and shows how strong
and ferocious leopards can be when
fighting to protect their territories.
So which of the two
leopards ultimately wins the battle? What
happens to Corbett 's mission in the end? Read this thrilling account
ofthe fight between two male leopards to unravelthe
mystery
The Text

Asl approached the village in company with the headman, I heard

the wailing ofa woman mourning her dead. It was the mother ofthe
victim and she was the first to greet me when I arrived in the village.
Even to my unpractised eye it was apparent that the bereaved mother
had just weathered one hysterical storm and was heading for another,
and as I lack the art of dealing with people in this condition, I was
anxious to spare the woman a recital ofthe events ofthe previous
evening. She appeared to be eager to give me her version of the
story, however, so I let her have her way. As her story unfolded, it
was apparent that her object in teling it was to ventilate her grievance
against the men of the village for not having run after the leopard and

The Widening Arc 111

 have done had he been alive.
alive
rescued her son, 'as his father would
"

her she was unjust, and in

In her accusation against the men, I told
rescued alive, I told her she
her beliefthat her son could have been
his teeth round the bov'e
was wrong. For when the leopard clamped
and the boy was
throat, they dislocated the head from the neck
himacross the
already dead before the leopard carried courtyard,

Nothing the assembled men-or anyone else-could have done would

have beenofany use.

Standing in the courtyard, drinking the tea that had so thoughtfuly

been provided for me, and noting the hundred or more people who
were gathered round, I found it difficult to conceive how an animal
the size ofa leopard had crossed the courtyard in daylight without

being seen by any ofthe people who must have been moving about
at that time, or how its presence had gone undetected by the dogs in
the village.
Climbing over the eight foot wall down which the leopard carrying
the boy had jumped, I followed the 'drag' across the yam field,
down another wall twelve feet high, and across another field. At the
edge ofthis second field there wasa thick hedge of rambler roses
four feet high. Here the leopard had released his hold on the boy's
throat and, after searching for an opening in the hedge-and not finding
one-had picked the victim up by the small ofthe back and, leaping
the hedge, gone down a-wall ten feet high on the far side. There
was a cattle track at the foot ofthis third wall, and the leopard had
only gone a short distance along it when the alarm was raised in the
village. Dropping the boy on the cattle track, the leopard went down

The Widening Arc 112

thehill and was prevented mreturning to his killby the
he hill
beating of
ms and the ifiring of guns, which had
and the
drums gone on in the village all
mgfit.

The obvious thing for have done would have been to

me to
carry the body ofthe boy back where the leopard had left it, and to
have sat over it there. But here I was faced with two difficulties-the
absence ofa suitable place in which to sit, and my aversion to sitting
in an unsuitable place.

The nearest tree, a leafless walnut, was 300 yards away and
was therefore out of the question and, quite frankly, I lacked the
courage to sit on the ground. I had arrived at the village at sundown;
it had takenma little time to drink the tea, hear the mother's story, and
trail the leopard, and there was not sufficient daylight left for me to
construct a shelter that would have given me even the semblance of
protection. IfI sat on the ground, I should have to sit just anywhere

not knowing full well that ifthe leopard attacked me

I would get no
with which I was familiar, my
opportunity ofusing the one weapon
unwounded leopard, or tiger,
rifle; for when in actual contact with an
it is not possible to use fire-arms.

returned to the courtyard and asked

After my tour ofinspection I
stout wooden peg, a hammer, and a
the headman for a crowbar, a
one of the flagstones in the
dog chain. With the crowbar prised up
I
into the ground, and
middle ofthe courtyard, drove the peg firmly
the chain to it. Then with the help ofthe headman
fastened one end of
and chained it there.
I carried the body ofthe boy to the peg,

The Widening Arc 113

 Before prising up the flagstone. had asked thatthe mother and
room at thee very end of
ofth
the
removed to a row of
her daughter be
preparations' Co
buildings. When
this had been done and my
bundle' of straw wh.
ompleted
I washed at the spring
and asked for a whichI laid
of the door of the house vacato ated by the
on the
veranda in front

mother.
Darkness had now fallen. Having asked the assembled people

as it was poSSible for them to he r

to be as silent during the night

homes and took up positionontha
t
sent them to their respective
on my side and heaping a little straw in
veranda, where, by lying
ofthe kill without there being much
front ofme, I had a clear view
chance ofmy being seen myself.
been made the previous night, I
In spite ofall the noise that had
that when he failed
had a feeling that the leopard would return, and
it he would come to the village to try
to find his kill where he had left
another victim. The ease with which he had secured
his
and secure
andI
first victimat Bhainswara would encourage him to try again,
started my vigil with high hopes.
8
Heavy clouds had been gathering all the evening, and at p.m
when all the village sounds-except the wailing ofthe woman-were

hushed, a flash of lightning followed by a distant roll of thunder

t"
heralded an approaching storm. For an hour the storm raged.
ured
lightning being so continuous and brilliant that had a rat ventu
into the courtyard I should have seen it, and probably beenab eto
cast.
shoot it. The rain eventually stopped, but the sky remained ov
come for the
reducing visibilityto a few inches. The time had now come
 been sheltering from the storm.
leopard to start from wherever he had
and the time of his arrival would depend on the distance of that
place from the village.
The woman now stopped wailing, and in all the world there
appeared to be no sound. This was as I had hoped it would be, for

all I had to warn me ofthe leopard's arrival were my ears, and to

help them I had used the dog chain instead ofa rope.

The straw that had been provided for me was as dry as tinder,

and my ears, straining into the black darkness, first heard the sound
when it was level with my feet-something was creeping, very stealthily
creeping, over the straw on which I was lying. I was wearing an
article ofclothing called shorts which left my legs bare in the region
coat of
of my knees. Presently, against this bare skin, I felt the hairy
until
an animal brushing-it could only be the man-eater, creeping up

he could lean over and get a grip ofmy throat. Alittle pressure now
foothold-and then, just asI was about
my left shoulder-to get
on a

to press the trigger of the rifle to diversion, a small animal

cause a

jumped down between my arms and my chest. It was a little kitten,

soaking wet, that had been caught out in the stormand, finding every
door shut, had come to me for, warmth and protection.

The kitten had hardly made itself comfortable inside my coat

and I was just beginning to recover from the fright it had given me,
when trom beyond the terraced fields there was some low growling,
which gradually grew louder. Then it merged into the most savage

fight I have ever heard. Quite evidently the man-eater had returned
to the spot where the previous night he had left his kill, and while he

The Widening Arc 115

 was searching for it, in not too good a temper, another male leopard,
who looked upon 'this particular area as his hunting ground, had

accidentally come across him and set on him. Fights ofthe nature of
the one that was taking place in my hearing are very unusual, for
carnivora invariably keep to their own areas, and ifby chance two
ofa sex happen to meet, they size up each other's capabilities at a
glance, and the weaker gives way to the stronger.

The man-eater, thoughold, wasa big and very powerfül male,

and in the 500 square miles he ranged over there was possibly no
other male capable of disputing his rule. But here at Bhainswara he
was a stranger and a trespasser and, to get out of the trouble he had
brought on himself, he would have to fight for his life. And this he
was undoubtedly doing.

My chance ofgetting a shot had now gone, for even if the man-
euter succeeded in defeating his attacker, his injuries would probably
prevent him from taking any interest in kills for some time to come.
There was even a possibility ofthe fight's ending fatally for him, and
here would indeed be an unexpected end to his
career, killed in an
accidental encounter by one of his own kind, when the combined
efforts ofthe Government and the
public had failed, over a period
of eight years, to
accomplish this end.
The first round, lasting about five
minutes, was fought with
unabating savagery, and was inconclusive, for at the end of it I could
still hear both animals. After an
interval of ten or fifteen minutes, the
fight was resumed, but at a distance of two to
three yards from
where it had
originally started; quite evidently the local
was
getting the better ofthe fight and was champion
gradualy driving the intruder
The
Widening Arc . 116
out of the ring. The third round was shorter than the two that had
preceded it, but was no less savage; and when after another long
period ofsilence the fight was again resumed, it had receded to the
shoulder ofthe hill, where, after a few minutes, it died out of hearing.

There was still some six hours of darkness left. Even so, I knew
my mission to Bhainswara had failed, and my hope that the fight
would be fought to a finish and would end in the death ofthe man-
eater had been short-lived. In the running fight the contest had now

degenerated into, the man-eater would sustain injuries, but they were
not likely to reduce his craving for human flesh, or impair his ability

to secure it.

Aids to understanding the text

headman a man who is the leader ofatribe or village

wailing loud cry

not habituated to see such sights
unpractised eye
bereaved sad because a family member has recently
died
storm
hysterical storm the mother's griefis deseribed as a

ventilate express
refers to the marks left on the ground when
drag
the boy was dragged away by the
man-eater

a thick root ofa plant that is eaten as a

long
yam
vegetable
clusters
rambler roses a variety ofroses that bloom in
semblance appearance

iron bar flattened at one end to dig earth and

crowbar
make holes

The Widening Arc 117

 a flat stone, used for paving
flagstones
vigil
a period oftime when a person or groun stays
in a place and quictly wait especially at night
a sign that something will happen
heralded
dry, flammable material, such as wood or
tinder
paper, used for lighting a fire

carnivora flesh-eating animals

a person entering someone 's land or property
frespasser
without permission, an intruder

unabating continuing at full strength or force without

becoming weaker

a cruel or violent act or action

savagery
impair weaken

Language Exercise

A. Vocabulary
case may be, of
L Give the noun, adjective and verb forms, as the
themin sentences
the following words used in the text and use
ofyour own:
is savage.
Example: Savagery: t is a noun. The adjective
on an eldery
Sentence: The police are investigating a savage attack
person at a cinema hall last night.
Bereaved, Accusation, Aversion, Impair, Accomplish, Inspectio"
followg
Find the words that are opposite in meaning to the
words used in the text:
Greet, Belief, Accidentaly, Invariably, Unabating
B. Grammar
e the
Replace the word in italics with a phrasal verb to comple
sentence

The Widening Arc 118

 feeling that the leopard would return for itskill.
had a
overcast,
eventualy stopped,
but the sky remained
The rain
few inches.
visibility to a
reducing
C. Word Fomation

word in brackets to
fill in the blank
Use the proper
form ofthe
space: 16? (law)
when you're
Is it todrive a car p a p e r in
most famous
is perhaps the
ii. The Times of India
India. (day) (taste)
is this? It's
i What sort offish successful in India that their
w a s so
The new pop group
iv. USA. (famous))
to the
spread
Text comprehension questions
incident does the
Bhainswara?
What
Corbett visit
. Why did recount to
Corbett?
grievance
mother that her
grieving convince the woman

C o r b e t t try
to
2. How did to
difficult
author find
was unjust? did the
incident
of the
3.
3. What aspect its
m a n - e a t e r
had dragged
conceive?
which the

Describe the path along

4. night-long
Corbett
for his
prey. were
made by
a r r a n g e m e n t s

What return
5. man-eater
would
village? that the
vigil in the confident
author
was the
, 6. Why that night?
to the village again his vigil? rounds

frightened
Corbettduring other?
H o w many

7
What with each
leopards
fight
8. did the
8, Why fight? The WideningArc119
did the leopards
99. ofthe
What were the possible results fight between the leopards?
10. Why does Corbett think that his hopehas been short-lived?

Composition Questions
1 Describe Jim Corbett's preparation for his adventure at the
village of Bhainswara.
2 What conclusions does Corbett draw from the fight between
the man-eater and the local leopard?

Why does Corbett think that his mission in Bhainswara

was a
3.
3
failure?