India, Oct. 3 -- For all their fearsome reputation, long, drooping whiskers and blood-curdling snarls, leopards invariably choose discretion as the better part of wild valour if the challenger is bigger. An incident from the Jhalana Leopard Reserve, Jaipur, had unfolded with a hulky, hardy, pugnacious nilgai taking on the dominant leopard, nicknamed Rana, who without a murmur slunk away from his resting spot of dominance over a waterhole.

A similar face-off occurred in Rajaji National Park's Chilla Wali range, when a juvenile male leopard was resting near a waterbody and buffaloes strutted into his domain. Wildlife photographer, Dr Kuldip Jaswal, captured the tension. Interdictions of the leopard's existence are frequent in protected are...