Richard Collins: Big cat is a solution to India’s rabid dog problem

INDIA’S Rudraprayag leopard killed its first victim, a villager from Benji, in 1918. This notorious cat would go on to devour at least 125 other unfortunates over the next eight years. People lived in fear. Few ventured out after dark. The beast even broke into homes to satisfy its craving for human flesh.

According to one story, villagers managed to capture their tormentor in a pit-trap, but no Hindu would shoot the notorious beast, lest its evil spirit transferred to the executioner. It took several hours for a Christian to arrive from another village, by which time the cat had dug its way out of the pit and escaped. The legendary Jim Corbett took ten months to track the serial killer and despatch it. Leopards seldom harm people. The Rudraprayag one had been injured by hunters. Unable to hunt wild prey, it turned on humans.