The area, once notorious for perhaps the most feared man-eater that Jim Corbett faced in his career, has for long been reporting instances of leopards straying into villages and lifting livestock, women and children.

The problem has become acute over the past week, since the recent earthquake, with hundreds of villagers preferring to live in the open rather than in cracked and precariously perched houses.

Bharat Singh Bhatola (64) of remote Tyunkhar village, who travelled 38 km on foot and by road to Rudraprayag town to plead with the authorities for help, says: ``If we sleep indoors, the next earthquake will kill us. If we sleep in the fields as we are doing now, because the tents and tarpaulins have been distributed only in and around roadheads and nothing has reached interior villagers, thenthe leopard will get us''.

He says a leopard killed a girl in neighbouring Luthiar village last month. According to unconfirmed reports, a leopard killed two children in another village last week.

The Wildlife Institute project aims at collecting data which will then be presented before villagers to make them familiar with animal behaviour and instincts. According to Dr S K Mukherjee, institute director, ``My colleague, Dr S P Goel, began work on the project a few months ago. Once we have the data, we will present it systematically before the villagers and the Forest Department. We will need the help of Government agencies and NGOs.''

``Habitat destruction in this area is both natural, due to landslides and earthquakes. It's manmade also due to tree-felling and encroachment. The second factor is shortage of prey. Besides, there is also a certain amount of hunting that goes on undetected. The villagers kill birds and deer,'' explains Mukhrjee.

All these factors have contributed to changing patterns ofleopard behaviour. ``A lactating leopard needs a heavy diet but, because the cubs remain blind and very vulnerable for the first few weeks after birth, the mother instinctively does not go very far to search for food for herself. What is happening is that leopards are giving birth on the forest edge so that they can find easy prey in nearby villages.''

``This is borne out by the fact that, whenever a leopard is killed in a village, it generally turns out to be a female. Sometimes, during the mating season, a male is trapped or killed. He probably came in pursuit of a female,'' says Mukherjee.

Other factors that turn leopards into man-eaters are well known. Aged and injured animals turn to easy prey. But Mukherjee also points out, ``Sometimes, before the 22-month weaning period is over, the mother might get killed or might abandon the cubs. They then begin to learn to hunt by trial and error on their own. If they come across human prey once, chances are they will look for it again''.