Kumbhalgarh is a wildlife sanctuary near Udaipur. We planned a fortnight trip to this sanctuary and arrived at the forest rest house at 6PM on June 3, 1996.

We took up our positions in a watchtower a kilometre away from the rest house at 7PM. Apart from two convoys of Grey Partridges, nothing turned up over the water hole till darkness. At around 8.40PM, a female Nilgai approached the water hole very cautiously. I nudged my daughter Arefa. She whispered in my ear that she couldn’t see the animal.

To satisfy the curiosity of the young naturalist, I switched on the torch. As soon as the beam illuminated the Nilgai, it stopped drinking water, took two-three steps backwards and then dashed towards our right side and disappeared into the jungle. Simultaneously, there was loud coughing by a leopard from our left. The leopard coughed eleven times and again silence engulfed the jungle.

The leopard was stocking the Nilgai and just at the time of its final attack we disturbed its prey. Seeing its ambush fail due to our interference at a crucial moment, it coughed disgruntledly.

We stepped out of the watch tower at 9.30PM. Our vehicle was parked around 200m from the tower so we walked up to it and drove back to the rest house.

Early next morning we again went to the watchtower. To our surprise the pugmarks of the leopard were superimposed on our footprints. After this unsuccessful attempt on the Nilgai, the leopard remained in the vicinity of the water hole.

When we abandoned the post, it not only followed us up to the vehicle but also it followed the vehicle for around 400m. When it ascertained our departure, it returned to the water hole. It took up its position behind a very low bush just near the water hole. From some fallen hair it was clear that the leopard had to console itself with a hare during the night.

In such circumstances the leopard double-checks if the disturbing element has parted.

Instead of a group of people if a single person was sitting in the hide and had stepped out of it carelessly as we did, it might have proved unpleasant.