INDISTURBED MONOTONY had been our loyal companion all along the National Highway 162 from Delhi. But now, as we curved along the Pali-Beawar flyover and glided over the asphalt ribbon slicing through the sheer rock of Aravallis, anticipation stirred.
Past the congested lanes of Sumerpur village, it was a catapult, without fair warning, into the most bucolic scenes. A lavish tapestry of gentle farmlands stretched for miles in every direction. Lacing the horizon were lava-cooled hills sculpted over billions of years by the forces of nature. The natural caves and rock shelters of these enormous granite mountains sheltered one of the world’s highest non-forest concentrations of Panthera Pardus. This was leopard country, and we had just
