Animals Asia Leopards Mammals Man-eaters Wild cats

Man-eaters: Leopard of Panar

The Panar leopard

In comparison to the tiger – the largest cat in the world – the leopard is a rather small cat. Certainly, it has the features of a real, lonely predator. Features, those sometimes turn out to be deadly for humans. This is shown by the story of an individual from Panar – an Indian region located in the district of Almora.

The leopard male lived in India at the beginning of the 20th century. He was the most active in the Panar province, where he killed over 400 people, almost as much as the Champawat tigress. There are many indications that attacks on people resulted from the same reason as in the case of this tigress. Because of injury, the leopard was not able to hunt wild mammals, so he began to hunt people to survive.

Hypotheses

One of the hypotheses is that a leopard could have been shot by a hunter. The predator, however, managed to escape and when the wound healing process was over, it turned out that the leopard did not regain its former efficiency, which meant that it was unable to hunt wild animals.

Legends say that hunting for people was a kind of leopard revenge for this shot.

The most dangerous leopard

The leopard of Panar was the most dangerous of the leopards reported in historical records. Although he killed the most people, he did not gain such fame as his cousin, the leopard from Rudraprayag, whose victims over the 8 years were “only” 125 people. The Rudraprayag leopard was also shot by Jim Corbett in 1926.

The end of the Panar leopard

The leopard from Panar was shot by Jim Corbett (which we mentioned in many articles) in 1910. Corbett needed several attempts. The first one was unsuccessful, while the second one the shot in the dark wounding the animal. Corbett tracked the animal later at the torch lights to finally kill the injured cat.

Leopards – the most dangerous cats

Due to their small size (compared to tigers and lions) and cunning, leopards are considered by many hunters (hunting for large exotic mammals) to be the most dangerous animals. One hunter even claimed that if a leopard were the size of a lion it would be 10 times more dangerous.

Other leopard attacks

The Panar leopard was not the only representative of the species to attack people. Another leopard killed over 200 people in Kahani (Central India). Another attacked pilgrims going to a Hindu temple. 125 people died in these attacks. The killer of the pilgrims was killed by Jim Corbett.