At first glance, leopards are not as fearsome as tigers. They do not possess the same brutal strength and size as tigers, but that is no reason to underestimate their ferocity and success as predators. And, when they take to man-eating, as Jim Corbett points out, they are often as deadly as tigers. In his best-selling book. EDWARD JAMES CORBETT (1875 -1955) was born in the Himalayan hill station of Nainital. At the young age of seventeen he joined the Indian Railways, and twenty-two years later left it to return to Nainital to run a hardware shop. He was one of the first generation of conservationists in India.