Jim Corbett (hunter)
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For other persons of the same name, see Jim Corbett.
Jim Corbett (25 July 1875–19 April 1955) was an Indian-born hunter, conservationist and naturalist, famous for his writings on the hunting of man-eating tigers and leopards. The Corbett National Park in India is named in his memory.
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[edit] Early Life
Edward James "Jim" Corbett was born of English ancestry in the town of Naini Tal in the Kumaon foothills of the Himalayas. Jim was the eighth child of Christopher and Mary Jane Corbett. His parents had moved to Naini Tal in 1862, after Christopher Corbett had been appointed postmaster of the town. Jim studied at Oak Openings School (later renamed Philander Smith College) and St Joseph's College in Naini Tal, but left the latter at age seventeen before completing high school. Soon thereafter, he joined the Bengal and North Western Railway, initially working as a fuel inspector at Manakpur in the Punjab, and subsequently as a contractor for the transhipment of goods across the Ganges at Mokama Ghat in Bihar.
[edit] Man-eating Tigers
Corbett was a hunter and fishing enthusiast in early life but took to big game photography later. As his admiration for tigers and leopards grew, he resolved never to shoot them unless they turned man-eaters or posed a threat to cattle. Between 1907 and 1938, Corbett tracked and put down at least a dozen man-eaters. It is estimated that the combined total of men, women and children these twelve animals had killed was in excess of 1,500. His very first success, the Champawat Tiger in Champawat, alone was responsible for 436 documented deaths. He also shot the Panar Leopard, which allegedly killed 400 after being injured by a poacher and thus being rendered unable to hunt its normal prey. Other notable man-eaters were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan man-eater, the Thak man-eater and the Chowgarh tigers. Jim Corbett was tall (6'1"), brave and endowed with very keen senses. He would often stalk to within twenty feet of the man-eaters, and at great risk to himself, to, as he put it, save at least one human life. He preferred to hunt alone when pursuing dangerous game, and on foot.
[edit] Conservationist
Corbett was a pioneer conservationist and lectured at local schools and societies to stimulate awareness of the natural beauty surrounding local people and the need to conserve forests and their wildlife. He helped create the Association for the Preservation of Game in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wild Life. He also established India's first national park, at first called the Hailey Park, named after Lord Malcolm Hailey, a former Governor of United Provinces, which was inaugurated in 1934 in the Kumaon Hills. He also had a deep affection for the people of the Kumaon Hills, and was loved by many of the region. He is considered by some in the Kumaon region as a sadhu.
[edit] Kenya
After 1947, Corbett and his sister Maggie retired to Nyeri, Kenya, where he continued to write and sound the alarm about declining numbers of jungle-cats and other wildlife. Jim Corbett was at the Tree Tops hotel, a hut built on the branches of a giant ficus tree, when Princess Elizabeth stayed there on February 5-6, 1952, at the time of the death of her father, King George VI. Corbett wrote in the hotel's visitors' register:
For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess, and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience, she climbed down from the tree the next day a Queen— God bless her.
Jim Corbett died of a heart attack a few days after he finished writing his sixth book Tree Tops, and was buried at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Nyeri. The national park he fought to establish in India, was renamed in his honor two years later and is now nearly twice its original size. It is a favored place for visitors hoping to see a tiger.
[edit] Legacy
His accounts of the hunting and killing of man-eaters, which had killed almost 1,500 Indians, are related in his books: Man-Eaters of Kumaon (1944) OUP Bombay, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag (1948), and the Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon (1954). Man-eaters of Kumaon was a success in India and was chosen by book clubs in the United Kingdom and the United States; the first printing of the American Book-of-the-Month Club being 250,000. The book was later translated into 27 languages. His Jungle Lore is considered as his autobiography. He also wrote My India, about Indian rural life.
In 1968, one of the five remaining subspecies of tigers was named after him; panthera tigris corbetti, more commonly called Corbett's tiger [1]. In 1994, Corbett's long neglected grave was repaired and restored by the founder and director of Jim Corbett Foundation which now has members worldwide.
Chronology of Books:
Man-eaters of Kumaon: First Indian Edition printed Bombay 1944 (Oxford University Press) Second edition printed Madras (OUP) 1945 First UK edition: (OUP) 1946
The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag: (OUP) UK 1948
My India: (OUP) UK 1952
Jungle Lore (OUP) 1953
The Temple Tiger and more man-eaters of Kumaon: (OUP) UK 1954
Tree Tops: (OUP) UK 1955
[edit] See also
- Jim Corbett National Park
- Naini Tal
- Literary references to Nainital
- Bengal Tiger
- Project Tiger
- Kumaon Division
