The Punjab The Punjab The Punjab (pronounced or ; Punjabi: ਪੰਜਾਬ, The Punjab (pronounced or ; [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]: [[Gurmukhī script|ਪੰਜਾਬ]], The Punjab (pronounced or ; [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]: [[Gurmukhī script|ਪੰਜਾਬ]], [[Shahmukhi script|, ), also spelled Panjab ' onMouseout='HidePop("96264")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Bihar">Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
.
Man-eating tigers
Corbett was a hunter and fishing enthusiast in early life but took to big
gameGame is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
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 TigerThe Champawat Tiger was a female Bengal Tiger shot in 1911 by Jim Corbett. She was allegedly responsible for 436 documented deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India mostly during the 19th century....
in
ChampawatChampawat is a town and a nagar panchayat in Champawat district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Champawat district.-Mythology:...
, alone was responsible for 436 documented deaths. Recent analysis of carcasses, skulls and preserved remains show that most of the man-eaters were suffering from disease or wounds like porcupine quills embedded deep in the skin or old gunshot wounds which never healed. For some, such as the
Leopard of RudraprayagThe Leopard of Rudraprayag is claimed to have killed over 125 people before being killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett.For eight years no one dared move alone at night on the road between the Hindu shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath for it passed through the leopard's territory. In...
, the skull and dentition showed advanced, debilitating gum and tooth decay, such as would limit the animal in killing wild game, and drive it towards man-eating.
He also shot the
Panar LeopardThe Leopard of Panar was a man-eating male leopard alleged to have killed and eaten as many as 400 people over a period of several years in the Kumaon District of Northern India in the early 20th century, after a wounding by a poacher had left it unable to hunt normal prey.The Panar Leopard was...
, 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 tigressThe Tigers of Chowgarh were a pair of man-eating Bengal tigers, consisting of an old tigress and her sub-adult cub, which for over a five year period killed a reported 64 people in eastern Kumaon over an area spanning 1,500 square miles...
. However, one of the most famous was the man-eating
Leopard of RudraprayagThe Leopard of Rudraprayag is claimed to have killed over 125 people before being killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett.For eight years no one dared move alone at night on the road between the Hindu shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath for it passed through the leopard's territory. In...
, which terrorised the pilgrims to the holy Hindu shrines
KedarnathKedarnath is a Hindu holy town located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is a nagar panchayat in Rudraprayag district. The most remote of the four Char Dham sites, Kedarnath is located in the Himalayas, about 3584m above sea level near the head of river Mandakini, and is flanked by...
and
BadrinathBadrinath is a Hindu holy town and a nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the most important of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage.-Geography:...
for more than ten years. The leopard was suffering from tooth decay, which made it much harder to kill its normal prey, and it instead turned to killing humans, who were much easier to kill. The Thak man-eating tigress, when skinned by Corbett, revealed two old gunshot wounds; one in her shoulder had become septic and Corbett suggests, could have been the reason for the tigress to have turned man-eater.
At times, he took great personal risks to save the lives of others. Still remembered in India as a great preservationist, his memories command fond respect in the areas he worked in.
By his own account, Corbett shot the wrong animal at least once, and greatly regretted the incident. In addition, man-eaters are quite capable of stalking the hunter. As a result, Corbett preferred to hunt alone and on foot when pursuing dangerous game. He often hunted with a small dog named Robin, about whom he wrote much in his first book,
The Maneaters of Kumaon.
Corbett shot a documented 19 tigers and 14 leopards -- a total of 33 recorded and documented kills.
Documentary
In 1986, the BBC produced a docudrama titled
Man-Eaters of India with Fred Treves in the role of Jim Corbett. An IMAX movie,
India: Kingdom of the Tiger, based on Corbett's books, was made in 2002. A TV movie (based on Corbett's book,
The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag) starring
Jason FlemyngJason Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From Hell ...
was made in 2005.
Conservationist
Corbett was a pioneer
conservationistConservationists are proponents or advocates of the ethic of conservation and may be part of the conservation movement.Conservationists advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
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 PradeshUttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
), and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wild Life. India's first national park, Hailey National Park, named after Lord Malcolm Hailey, a former Governor of United Provinces, established in 1934 in the Kumaon Hills, was renamed in Corbett's honor in 1957. Corbett 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
sadhuIn Hinduism, sadhu is a common term for a mystic, an ascetic, practitioner of yoga and/or wandering monks. The sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving the fourth and final Hindu goal of life, moksha , through meditation and contemplation of Brahman...
.
Kenya
After 1947, Corbett and his sister Maggie retired to Nyeri,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
, where he continued to write and sound the alarm about declining numbers of
jungle catsThe jungle cat , also called the swamp lynx , is a medium-small cat, but is now considered the largest remaining species of the wild cat genus Felis. It averages 70 cm , plus a relatively short 20 cm tail, and stands about 36 cm tall...
and other wildlife. Jim Corbett was at the
Treetops HotelTreetops Hotel is a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 1,966 m above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya...
, a hut built on the branches of a giant ficus tree, when
Princess ElizabethElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
stayed there on February 5-6, 1952, at the time of the death of her father,
King George VIGeorge VI was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death...
. 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.
Legacy
Jim Corbett's accounts of the hunting and killing of man-eaters, which had killed almost 450 Indians, are related in his books:
Man-Eaters of KumaonMan-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India in the 1920s and 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...
(1944),
The Man-Eating Leopard of RudraprayagThe Leopard of Rudraprayag is claimed to have killed over 125 people before being killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett.For eight years no one dared move alone at night on the road between the Hindu shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath for it passed through the leopard's territory. In...
(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.
The
Jim Corbett National ParkJim Corbett National Park—named after the hunter turned conservationist Jim Corbett who played a key role in its establishment—is the oldest national park in India. The park was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park...
in
UttarakhandUttarakhand , is a state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out of Himalayan and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
is named after him. He had played a key role in establishing the wildlife reserve.
In 1968, one of the five remaining subspecies of tigers was named after him;
Panthera tigris corbetti, more commonly called
Corbett's tigerThe Indochinese tiger or Corbett's tiger is a subspecies of tiger found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. Tigers in peninsular Malaysia, formerly classified as Indochinese, have recently been reclassified as a separate subspecies, Malayan tiger Panthera tigris jacksoni...
.
In 1994, Corbett's long-neglected grave was repaired and restored by Jerry A. Jaleel, founder and director of the Jim Corbett Foundation, which has members worldwide.
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
See also
- Jim Corbett National Park
Jim Corbett National Park—named after the hunter turned conservationist Jim Corbett who played a key role in its establishment—is the oldest national park in India. The park was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park...
- Naini Tal
- Literary references to Nainital
The town of Nainital , India was founded in 1841 by P. Barron, a sugar trader from Shahjahanpur. By 1846 the church St John's in the Wilderness was founded and a hill station had begun to flourish. Among the authors who referred to Nainital in their writings were Rudyard Kipling, Munshi...
- Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger, or Royal Bengal tiger , is a subspecies of tiger primarily found in India and Bangladesh. They are also found in parts of Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and southern Tibet. The Bengal tiger is the most numerous of the tiger sub-species...
- Project Tiger
Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation project initiated in India in 1972 to protect the Bengal Tigers.The project aims at tiger conservation in specially constituted tiger reserves representative of various biogeographical regions throughout India...
- Kumaon Division
For Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon kumaun is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. It includes the districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar...
- Kenneth Anderson (writer)
Kenneth Anderson was an Indian writer and hunter who wrote many books about his adventures in the jungles of South India.- Background :...
- Man-eater
Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that adds humans to its diet. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...
External links