Jim Corbett National Park
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Jim Corbett
Jug Suraiya, July 25, 2025: The Times of India
I looked behind me… straight into the tigress’s face… looking into the tigress’s eyes, eight feet from me… my arm was paralysed… I managed to press the trigger.”
The hunter had chanced upon an egg nest which he picked up. Moments later, hunter and hunted came face to face in a heart-stopping encounter. Corbett fired. The crouching maneater slumped in death. Corbett retraced his steps and replaced, undamaged, the egg nest.
That moment of truth from Jim Corbett’s ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ is perhaps the best-known episode in Indian ‘shikar’ literature, which is currently undergoing a revival, all the more so in that the forests he evokes so vividly are in imminent danger of disappearing forever. In April 1930 Jim Corbett, domiciled Englishman and expert shikari, was on the trail of the Chowgarh maneater, which in a four-and-a-half year reign of terror had claimed over 60 human victims.
The dramatic confrontation between man and beast reflects the quintessence of both the shikar story and the complex personality of its greatest and legendary exponent. The conflict between hunter and conservationist conjures up the enigma of the quintessential shikari, hunter of the thing he loves and dreads.
A man-eating tiger is the most fearsome of wild creatures, and in 39 years of tracking down and destroying such animals Corbett displayed incredible courage, stamina, and jungle craft. He wrote: “The near proximity of a tiger in daylight causes a disturbance in the bloodstream. When the tiger is not an ordinary one, but a maneater and the time is 10 o’clock on a dark night, and you know the maneater is watching you, the disturbance in the blood becomes a storm.”
This storm in the blood became an obsession that repeatedly compelled Corbett to risk death for no reward other than “Satisfaction at having done a job that needed doing, at having out-manoeuvered on his own ground a very worthy antagonist, and greatest satisfaction of all, at having made a small portion of the Earth safe for a little girl to walk on.” But it was a satisfaction not untinged with regret. To quote Corbett, “A tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage, and when he is exterminated — as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support — India will be poorer for having lost the finest of her fauna.”
Corbett’s recorded tally of maneaters was 12, though he may have shot more. Among the Kumaon hillfolk, ‘Carpet Sahib’ attained the stature of a mythic hero, a spare, ascetic man, dressed in shorts and hunting jacket, softspoken, yet exercising authoritarian sway over his domain. With the publication of ‘ManEaters of Kumaon’ in 1944, Corbett became an international celebrity, his book selling millions of copies worldwide. Dedicated to the over 125 victims of the animal, ‘The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’ appeared in 1948, when Corbett with his sister Maggie had left newly independent India to settle in Kenya, which was still British-ruled. ‘My India’, published in 1952, contained not shikar stories, but vignettes of the 22 years that Corbett had spent as a railway contractor at Mokameh Ghat on the Ganga. Informed with the gruff unsentimental affection he had for the country, particularly for its downtrodden, the book is dedicated “To my friends, the poor of India”.
Corbett’s last book, ‘Tree Tops’, published in 1955, a few months after his death, is his only work set in Africa. Titled after an observation platform in a local wildlife reserve, the book describes the overnight stay there of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on a visit to Kenya. Mau Mau terrorists had been active in the area and Corbett was deputed to stand guard over the royal couple. During the night, George VI died. Corbett wrote, “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a princess, and climbed down the next day a queen.”
For the old shikari, it was an apt envoi to a career marked by two complementary yet conflicting passions: his love for forests and his belief in Empire. Standing at the crossroads of the colonial experience, Corbett made shikar a metaphor for his life.
In a sense, the dilemma Corbett faced has intensified in present-day India where, under the remorseless pressure of over-population, the forest cover has been reduced to a scant 11% of the total land area from over 25% at Independence. Environmentalists warn of impending ecological disaster, echoing fears that haunted the shikari almost a century ago. Now, as then, the tiger is a key element in the preservation-versusprogress, man-versusanimal, equation. A forest with a viable tiger population is a selfsustaining ecological organisation.
Though the tiger was declared a protected species in 1970s, its number in India had declined to a perilous 1,800 when the conservation programme, Project Tiger, was launched in 1973. Since then, the country’s tiger population has risen to over 3,600 (per 2023 tiger census), a sizeable number being in the Corbett National Park that the shikari helped to establish in 1936. Initially called Hailey’s Park, the reserve was named after him in 1957.
“Until lions can speak, the only history will be that of the hunters”, is an African saying. But as the archetypal shikari showed, the tale of the hunter is also that of his quarry.
Details
Avijit Ghosh, July 25, 2025: The Times of India
From: Avijit Ghosh, July 25, 2025: The Times of India
From: Avijit Ghosh, July 25, 2025: The Times of India
From: Avijit Ghosh, July 25, 2025: The Times of India
Jim Corbett was a hero and a redeemer for the hill-folk of Kumaon and Garhwal in the colonial India of 1920s and 1930s. But the hunter-turned-conservation- ist got written about nationally and became a global literary star only after his debut book, ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’, came out in 1944. He was 69 then.
“It is safe to say that no journalist could have written ‘a jungle thriller’ of more absorbing interest than this classic by Jim Corbett, which is undoubtedly the best thing of its kind since ‘Man-Eaters of Tsavo,’” The Times of India review in Sept 1944 said. ‘Man-Eaters of Tsavo’ (1907), a tale of two terrorising lions in east Africa, was written by hunter John Patterson and was filmed decades later as ‘The Ghost and The Darkness’ (1996). The review further said, “what Jim Corbett doesn’t know about tigerland and tiger habits isn’t worth knowing…” and pointed out that “the author is giving the whole of his royalties to St Dunstan’s hostel for blinded Indian soldiers (in World War II).” ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ was also a choice for “Book of the Month” club in the US. “Probably this is the first book published in India to be so honoured,” noted a TOI article in Nov 1945.
TOI described his second book, ‘The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’, as a “masterpiece of suspense”. But it also said that the book was “greater” and “deeper”. “It is inspired throughout by deep human pity and an understanding of what this terrible enemy meant to thousands of poor folk,” the Nov 1945 review said.
Corbett stayed connected with India long after he migrated to Kenya. In 1955, he weighed in on Ramu, the controversial ‘wolf ’ boy, which was published in TOI .
The engagement was reciprocated. Letters were written to the TOI editor, some decades after his death. In 1960, S A Bashir from Ahmedabad wrote that Corbett’s ‘My India’ should be prescribed as “a rapid reader for matriculation or intermediate students.” In 1975, his birth centenary year, Dr A S Kothari wrote “no other foreigner loved India so much as this great Englishman.... we should name Bombay’s national park after Jim Corbett and publish cheap books on the wildlife of India to commemorate him.”
The name of the park
1936-2021
Shivani.Azad/ The Times of India/ 7 October 2021
When the park was first set up in 1936, it was known as Malcolm Hailey Park after the first Lt Governor of the United Provinces.
Between 1954 and 1956, the tiger reserve was called ‘Ramganga National Park’ — after the Ramganga river that flows through it — before it was renamed in a tribute to noted hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett.
Animal attacks on the park’s staff
2000> 2019
Shivani Azad, Oct 22, 2019: The Times of India
Ramesh Negi, (35), a forest guard, died after being attacked by a tiger while patrolling the Plane range of Corbett Tiger Reserve’s Kalagarh division. This is the second such attack in the same range in the past few months — a forest beat-watcher was mauled to death on July 15 — and the third death of a frontline worker in Corbett this year. The reserve has lost more than a dozen forest officials in the past 19 years to such attacks, reports Shivani Azad.
Corbett authorities plan to seek National Tiger Conservation Authority’s permission to tranquilise the wild cat involved in the latest incident and radio collar it to monitor its behaviour.
Animal health
2015: canine diseases, 17,000 dogs in buffer zone
The Times of India Jan 01 2016
The thriving big cat population at the Jim Cor bett National Park might be a showpiece for successful con servation, but the famous wildlife sanctuary's tigers and leopards might be at risk from canine diseases from 17,000 odd dogs living in villages in the 5km buffer zone.
A first-of-its-kind survey of wildlife habitats in India conducted by Humane Society International, India, a leading animal rights group, found most of the dogs were unvacci nated and are possible prey for felines who spill out of the core areas of the sanctuary .
Though dogs are not natu ral diet for tigers, the interface with areas populated by humans makes them vulnerable.However, dogs are a prey for the leopards who often raid villages and isolated dwellings looking for an easy meal. The survey makes a case for immediate vaccination of around 13,000 dogs which might infect the big cats with diseases that are not found in the wild. The survey of dog population is considered the best means of determining the vaccination gap and prevent canine diseases from transferring to felines.
Amit Chaudhari, who led the team in conducting the survey around the Jim Corbett National Park in October, told TOI that vaccinations are a preventive action.
“The majority of dogs in the buffer zone are owned by the villagers. There are many instances wherein the dogs are snatched away by the big cats. Largely unaware of these infections and the vaccinations for them, the villagers have not given jabs to these dogs,“ Chaudhari said. Research shows tigers and leopards in such sanctuaries are at risk from canine diseases like rabies, parvo and distemper, all viruses that can be transferred from canine to feline. Vaccination is also important to protect humans and prevent reprisals against the canines.There have been instances where people killed dogs around Ranthambore national park in Rajasthan, fearing spread of diseases in the area.
The HSI is currently preparing a proposal for the NTCA on how to take the project to the next phase of vaccination by running a pilot project that can be then extended to other national parks. “The vaccination drive will not on ly create a healthy habitat for the wildlife but also for the humans inhabiting these areas, making it a first of its kind project in India“, said the HSI while disclosing basic details of the survey .
Rahul Sehgal, director of HSI, Asia, said, “This survey is the first step towards the `Free Roaming Dog Population Program' that will help in further protecting the dogs and the wildlife habitat. After the survey , we now wish to vaccinate the dogs and identify if any are already infected.“
Birds
2021: 350 species
Prashant Jha, February 22, 2021: The Times of India
The first phase of the Corbett Tiger Reserve’s (CTR’s) first-ever bird survey has documented over 350 species spread across the region. The three-day first phase which concluded this week has identified 11 types of woodpeckers along with five species of barbets and five types of parakeet, among many other species of birds.
It is estimated that Corbett has around 500 bird species. However, no official survey has been done as yet to document the exact number of bird species in the reserve. Speaking to TOI, Shah Belal, senior wildlife biologist at CTR, said the three-day survey reiterated that there is little to be concerned about the Great Hornbill species whose numbers were believed to be decreasing. “The birds indicate the health of a forest. Till now, it was believed that there are around 500 bird species here but we now estimate that the number is much higher. We have also found Great Hornbills in several habitats which allay the fear that their numbers are decreasing,” he said.
The survey was undertaken by 26 teams, each with a bird expert. Belal said the next two phases of the survey will be conducted after the monsoons and during winters to document migratory birds.
Visitors
2017> 19: a decline in numbers
Shivani Azad, June 23, 2019: The Times of India
The Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) and Rajaji National Park (RNP), the two premier tiger habitats in Uttarakhand have registered a marginal dip in tourist footfall this year which officials say is the first time this has happened in the past four years.
While 2.84 lakh tourists visited CTR and 61,507 came to RNP in 2017-18, footfall in the two national parks declined to 2.83 lakh and 55,091 respectively in 2018-19. The decline in numbers, albeit marginal, has led officials to search for possible reasons with some attributing the dip to the Uttarakhand HC orders of limiting the number of vehicles entering the parks and ban on night stay (which was later relaxed by SC). Citing possible reasons for the decline in footfall, officiating director of CTR Sanjiv Chaturvedi said, “Following HC order, the Bijrani zone of the reserve opened a week later than usual. This can be a possible reason behind the decline in footfall.”
This year, too, Bijrani zone remained centre of attraction in CTR with highest tourist footfall (57,061), followed by Jhirna zone (37,000). In Rajaji, Chilla zone saw most number of tourists this year at 24,895, followed by Motichur zone (4,000). This year, while 7,760 foreigners visited CTR, RNP saw 4,339 foreign tourists. Rajaji director PK Patro told TOI, “There has been a marginal decline in tourist footfall which can be attributed to various reasons, including legal directions limiting entry of vehicles to parks and ban on night stay.”
Water requirement
Ferried by tankers in summer
The Times of India, Jun 06 2016
Vineet Upadhyay According to estimates, almost 1.5 lakh litres of water is being procured every day to fill up more than 100 water holes in the park. “Although procuring water has been a regular practice more or less every summer, this year, the dry spell was too long. Hence, our requirement is huge and we have had to get additional water for the animals,“ park director Sameer Sinha told TOI.
The exercise started in April with the onset of summer but as temperatures have risen, the quantum of water being bought has also gone up. According to officials, every day , 35-40 tankers arrive at the park, each carrying 4,000 litres of water. This is then filled in the water holes either manually or with pump sets.
“This is serious. The soaring temperatures have resulted in a situation where we have had to increasingly depend on supplied water to meet the requirements of the animals,“ said Saket Badola, deputy director of the park.
