Dehradun, Jan. 28 -- A leopard does not change its spots.

"Forty-five traps have been set up along East Canal Road and the nearby villages of the Doon!" the headlines scream. Earlier, a leopard had struck and mauled a young boy on his way home at dusk after a cricket match. The youngster survived and, as I pen this, is recuperating.

On the outskirts of Dehradun's Defence Colony, I met Professor Bimal Gairola, whose grandfather, the legendary Tara Dutt Gairola, was delivering a lecture on Himalayan Magic. The Scotsman Philip Mason, the Commissioner of Garhwal, was seated amongst the audience; he would later go on to write A Matter of Honour and Call the Next Witness.

"Have you heard of werewolves in Garhwal? Men who turn into wolves at ...