Jim Corbett (hunter)

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For other persons of the same name, see Jim Corbett.
Jim Corbett, hunter turned conservationist.
Jim Corbett, hunter turned conservationist.

Jim Corbett (25 July 1875 – 19 April 1955) was an Indian-born Irish 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 Irish 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), St Joseph's College and the Diocese Boys School (later renamed Sherwood 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 transshipment 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-eater or posed a threat to cattle. Between 1907 and 1938, Corbett tracked and killed 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 he killed were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan man-eater, the Thak man-eater and the Chowgarh tigress. However, one of the most famous was the man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, which terrorised the pilgrims to the holy Hindu shrines Kedarnath and Badrinath for more than ten years. A TV movie starring Jason Flemyng was made in 2005. 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, in order to save at least one human life. He preferred to hunt alone and on foot when pursuing dangerous game.

[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. India's first national park, the Hailey National Park, named after Lord Malcolm Hailey, a former Governor of United Provinces, inaugurated in 1934 in the Kumaon Hills was later renamed in his honor in 1957. 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 Treetops 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 honour two years later and is now nearly twice its original size. It is a favoured place for visitors hoping to see a tiger.

[edit] Legacy

Jim Corbett's 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), 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 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. In 1994, Corbett's long-neglected grave was repaired and restored by the founder and director of Jim Corbett Foundation which has members worldwide[1].

[edit] Books

  • Man-eaters of Kumaon:
    • First Indian Edition printed Bombay 1944 (Oxford University Press)
  • The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag: (OUP) UK 1948
  • My India: (OUP) UK/INDIA 1952
  • Jungle Lore: (OUP) UK 1953
  • The Temple Tiger and more man-eaters of Kumaon: (OUP) UK 1954
  • Tree Tops: (OUP) UK 1955
  • Man-Eaters of Kumaon and The Temple Tiger (OUP, World's Classics #577) UK 1960

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Jim Corbett Foundation, Canada (Edmonton, Alberta) by JERRY A. JALEEL F.R.G.S (Founder, Director), email: jimcorbettfoundation@shaw.ca - In 1994, Jim Corbett's long-neglected grave in Kenya was repaired and restored by the founder and director of Jim Corbett Foundation which has members worldwide.
  • Booth, Martin. 1986. Carpet Sahib: A Life of Jim Corbett.

[edit] External links