Jim Corbett, hunter turned conservationist.

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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... 1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses of India, see India (disambiguation). ... “Hunter” redirects here. ... Conservationists are those people who tend to more highly rank the wise use of the Earths resources and ecosystems. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now often viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines of integrative organismal biology. ... Binomial name Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of tigers in 1900 (red) and 1990 (green) Synonyms Felis tigris Linnaeus, 1758 Tigris striatus Severtzov, 1858 Tigris regalis pink, 1867 Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four big cats in the Panthera genus. ... Binomial name Panthera pardus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis pardus Linnaeus, 1758 The Leopard (Panthera pardus) is one of the four big cats of the genus Panthera. ... Jim Corbett National Park is Indias first national park, located near Nainital in the state of Uttaranchal. ...

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), 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 transhipment of goods across the Ganges at Mokama Ghat in Bihar. Nainital is a town in the Indian state of Uttaranchal and headquarters of Nainital District in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalaya. ... Kumaon is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttaranchal, a hilly (and mountainous) state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. ... Perspective view of the Himalayas and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... Click the discussion tab on top of the page to discuss the article St Josephs College Nainital is a residential school providing public school education. ... Punjab, 1903 Punjab Province, 1909 Punjab (Persian: ‎, meaning Land of the five Rivers) (c. ... Transshipment is the shipment of goods to an intermediate destination, and then from there to yet another destination. ... Early morning on the Ganges The River Ganges (Ganga in Indian languages) (Devanagiri गंगा) is a major river in northern India. ... , Bihar (Hindi: बिहार, Urdu: بہار, IPA: ,  ) is a state of the Indian union situated in the eastern part of the country. ...

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 tigers. 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. 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. Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated (such as venison). ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Champawat Tigress was a Bengal Tiger shot in 1907 by Jim Corbett. ... Champawat is one of the 6 districts of Kumaon. ... The Panar Leopard allegedly killed 400 after being injured by a poacher and thus unable to hunt normal prey before being killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett. ... Rudraprayag is a town and a nagar panchayat in Rudraprayag District in the Indian state of Uttaranchal. ... The Kedarnath temple Kedarnath is a Hindu holy town located in the the Indian state of Uttarakhand. ... , Badrinath is a Hindu holy town and a nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. ...

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. Conservationists are those people who tend to more highly rank the wise use of the Earths resources and ecosystems. ... , Uttar Pradesh (Hindi: , Urdu: , translation: Northern Province, IPA: ,  ), often referred to as U.P., is the most populous and fifth largest state in the Republic of India. ... In Hinduism, sadhu is a common term for an ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (pleasure), artha (wealth and power) and even dharma (duty). ...

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: 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Binomial name Felis chaus Schreber, 1777 The Jungle Cat (Felis chaus), also called the Swamp Lynx (although not closely related to the lynxes), is a small cat with a rather short tail (length 70 cm, plus 30 cm tail). ... The present Treetops hotel Treetops Hotel is a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 6,450 feet above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya. ... Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor; born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, holding each crown and title equally. ... George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death. ...

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 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 as his autobiography. He also wrote My India, about Indian rural life. Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by Jim Corbett. ... The Leopard of Rudraprayag is claimed to have killed over 125 people before being killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett. ... The Book of the Month Club (founded 1923) is a mail-order business where consumers are offered a new book each month. ...

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. Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1968 Gregorian calendar. ... Trinomial name Panthera tigris corbetti Mazák, 1968 Distribution map The Indochinese tiger or Corbetts tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) is a subspecies of tiger found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. ...

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 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

See also

• Jim Corbett National Park
• Naini Tal
• Literary references to Nainital
• Bengal Tiger
• Project Tiger
• Kumaon Division

A herd of Indian wild elephants at Corbett national park. ... Nainital is a town in the Indian state of Uttaranchal and headquarters of Nainital District in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalaya. ... General view looking down on Naini Tal Lake from the northern hills, Photograph of Nainital from the Macnabb Collection (Col James Henry Erskine Reid): Album of views of Naini Tal taken by Lawrie & Company in 1895. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation project initiated in India in 1972 to protect the Bengal Tigers. ... Kumaon (or Kumaun) is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. ...

References

• Booth, Martin. 1986. Carpet Sahib: A Life of Jim Corbett.

External links

• The Corbett Study Group
• Another webpage on Jim Corbett
• The Corbett Foundation, India is named after the legendary Jim Corbett and is a registered public charitable trust
• Scanned version of Maneaters of Kumaon