At Gulabrai, Corbett’s famous man-eater is now part of folklore

Ishwari Prasad was the only one to have survived an attack, in 1921, by the leopard and the tale is told well by his great-grandson, Navin Chand Deoly. Ishwari Prasad’s home still stands, though it’s in a dilapidated condition.

“Panditji was sleeping out here on the verandah, though his wife had warned him not to. The leopard used to come down the hillside by that trail near the gosala. He came up to the house and dragged Panditji, who was asleep, till the steps. Then, Panditji fought back and managed to throw off the leopard. He actually flung it a few feet down, to the edge of the garden. Then the leopard retreated,” he says.

Navin then imparts a Moby Dick-like character to the animal – “After that, it wanted to avenge itself. That’s why it left other people and came only here, again and again”.

Ishwari Prasad died a natural death in 1949. One of the most-prized possessions of his descendent is an antique framed photograph of Ishwari Prasad taken by Corbett. It is said that the gashes in Ishwari Prasad’s neck were so deep that blood and even the water he was given to drink spurted out.

Navin (32) runs a general provision store, much like his great-grandfather whose customers were pilgrims halting at his chatti route to Badrinath and Kedarnath. “I worked for some time in a printing press in Mumbai but it shut down and then I was unwell so I returned home. I hope to get a proper job and renovate my great-grandfather’s house and preserve it,” he says.