Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist, who was born and lived in the Terai region of the Himalayas. He knew the jungle inside out, and was an expert tracker. He was also much in demand for his hunting, but at some time in his life, he had made a vow to not kill for fun, but kill those animals who hunted humans. He is responsible for killing a number of leopards and tigers who had terrorised humans in the region (many of these animals had killed scores of humans). Jim Corbett is now immortalized with the naming of a famous Tiger Habitat, called the Jim Corbett Tiger National Park (having around 164 tigers) located in the same regions where he lived, and where animals are now protected. Corbett wrote a number of books based on the animals he killed, especially since he also wrote about the habitat, about the reasons as to why an animal turned into a man-eater (because it was unable to hunt its natural prey - old age, wounded in a fight, or injured by a bullet), and also about the society of that time.
This book about the chase of an animal famous as the man-eater of Rudraprayag in the year 1925-26, in which he was accompanied by Commissioner of Kumaon, Sir William Ibbotson. They were tracking an animal that had killed around 125 people, and was an elusive hunt, and was a pretty heavy task; compounded by the fact that the region in which the leopard roamed free was around 1300 square kilometers.
As usual Corbett describes the society around him, the superstitions and faiths of the villagers; something which varied drastically between daytime and night. At night, the terror of the leopard would ensure that people kept inside, scared of the leopard. You also realize the admiration with which Corbett held the nature and environment around him.
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