02/04/2026
Leopards in Sri Lanka
Until the mid-20th century, leopards reportedly preyed on humans during the ‘Pada Yatra’ in Sri Lanka. During this pilgrimage, devotees would travel through jungle terrain to Kataragama. Some grew weary or got lost, and their bodies were later found mauled. One path to Kataragama (from Buttala via Galge) was ‘infested’ with man-eating leopards.
In his book, “Diversions of a Diplomat” (1956) late US ambassador Philip Crowe explains the reason why leopards congregated at Galge. Villagers claimed that during the pilgrimage, some old people would die in the jungle. Thus, leopards grew fond of human flesh and became man-eaters. During the 1945 pilgrimage, a female leopard reportedly killed 15 people! it was finally shot by ‘Pieris Apu,’ a guard from the forest department.
D.J. Hennessey gives a more dramatic story in “Green Aisles – A Story of the Jungles of Ceylon” (1949). According to Hennessey, pilgrims traveling to Kataragama would often fall by the wayside. Consequently, leopards ate their corpses and developed a taste for human flesh. The first warden of Yala, Henry Englebrecht, once discovered a female body on the pilgrim route. Surprisingly, a wailing baby lay by her side! Englebrecht noticed leopard pug-marks nearby. With a rifle in hand, he lay prone and pretended to be a dead pilgrim. The baby continued to cry. Shortly, the leopard reappeared. Carefully, it prowled up & down the trail, observing Englebrecht. And just as it prepared to pounce, Englebrecht shot it down.
Englebrecht died in 1928, but as per Crowe’s report, man-eating leopards inhabited the region till 1945. In the 1950s, a leopard targeted pilgrims near Pottana. Even in 2010, a leopard attacked a female pilgrim. With the recent attack at Kumana, maybe they’re still around?
