Jim Corbett (hunter)
Encyclopedia
Edward James "Jim" Corbett (25 July 1875 in Nainital, India – 19 April 1955 in Nyeri
Nyeri
Nyeri is a town in situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya Kenya, which was the administrative headquarters of the country's former Central Province...

, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

) was a British hunter
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

, conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...

, author and naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating
Man-eater
Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that preys upon humans. This does not include scavenging. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...

 tigers and leopards in India.

Corbett held the rank of colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 in the British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...

 and was frequently called upon by the government of the United Provinces
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1947; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces, by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of...

, now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

 and Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

, to slay man-eating
Man-eater
Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that preys upon humans. This does not include scavenging. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...

 tigers and leopards that had killed people in the villages of the Garhwal
Garhwal Division
Garhwal is the north-western region and administrative division of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand which is home to the Garhwali people. Lying in the Himalayas, It is bounded on the north by Tibet, on the east by Kumaon region, on the south by Uttar Pradesh state, and on the north-west by...

 and Kumaon
Kumaon Division
For Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or 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...

 region. His success in slaying the man-eaters earned him much respect and fame amongst the people residing in the villages of Kumaon, many of whom considered him a sadhu
Sadhu
In Hinduism, sādhu denotes an ascetic, wandering monk. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa , the fourth and final aśrama , through meditation and contemplation of brahman...

(saint).

Corbett was an avid photographer and after his retirement, authored the Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...

, Jungle Lore and other books recounting his hunts and experiences, which enjoyed much critical acclaim and commercial success. Corbett spoke out for the need to protect India's wildlife from extermination. The Jim Corbett National Park
Jim Corbett National Park
Jim Corbett National Park—named for the hunter and 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 Kumaon was named in his honour in 1957.

Early life

Edward James Corbett was born of Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 ancestry in the town of Nainital in the Kumaon
Kumaon Division
For Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or 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...

  the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 (now in the Indian state of Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

). Jim grew up in a large family of 13 children and was the eighth child of Willam Christopher and Mary Jane Corbett. His parents had moved to Nainital in 1862, after Christopher Corbett had been appointed postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...

 of the town. In winters, the family used to move to the foothills, where they owned a cottage named 'Arundel' in Chhoti Haldwani or 'Corbett's Village' now known as Kaladhungi. After his father's death, when Jim was 4 years old, his eldest brother Tom took over as the postmaster of Nainital. From a very young age, Jim was fascinated by the forests and the wildlife around his home in Kaladhungi. At a young age he learned to identify most animals and birds by their calls - owing to his frequent excursions. Over time he became a good tracker and hunter. Jim studied at the Oak Openings School, later merged with Philander Smith College in sher-ka-danda ( which later renamed Birla Vidya Mandir) in Nainital. Before he was 19, he quit school and found an employment with the Bengal and North Western Railway, initially working as a fuel inspector at Manakpur in the Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

, and subsequently as a contractor for the trans-shipment of goods across the Ganges at Mokameh Ghat in Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....

.

Hunting man-eating tigers

Between 1907 and 1938, Corbett tracked and shot a documented 19 tigers
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...

 and 14 leopards — a total of 33 recorded and documented man-eater
Man-eater
Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that preys upon humans. This does not include scavenging. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...

s. It is estimated that these big cats had killed more than 1,200 men, women and children. The first tiger he killed, the Champawat Tiger
Champawat Tiger
The Champawat Tiger was a female Bengal Tiger shot in 1907 by Jim Corbett. It was responsible for 436 documented deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India mostly during the 19th century....

 in Champawat
Champawat
Champawat 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:...

, was responsible for 436 documented deaths.
He also shot the Panar Leopard
Panar Leopard
The 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 people. This leopard's skull and dentition showed advanced, debilitating gum disease and tooth decay, such as would limit the animal in killing wild game and drive it towards man-eating. One of the most famous was the man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag
Leopard of Rudraprayag
The Leopard of Rudraprayag was a male man-eating leopard, claimed to have killed over 125 people. It was eventually killed by famed big cat hunter and author Jim Corbett.The first victim of the leopard was from village Benji...

, which terrorised the pilgrims to the holy Hindu shrines Kedarnath and Badrinath for more than ten years.

Other notable man-eaters he killed were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan man-eater, the Thak man-eater
Thak man-eater
The Thak man-eater was a female Bengal Tiger who killed and ate four human victims between September and November 1938. She was operating in Kumaon, at the Nepalese border, between the villages Thak, Chuka and Sem. The tigress was shot at about 6.00pm on November 30, 1938 by Jim Corbett. This was...

 and the Chowgarh tigress
Tigers of Chowgarh
The 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...

.

Analysis of carcasses, skulls and preserved remains show that most of the man-eaters were suffering from disease or wounds like porcupine
Indian Porcupine
The Indian Crested Porcupine , or Indian Porcupine, is a member of the Old World porcupines. It is quite an adaptable rodent, found throughout southern Asia and the Middle East. It is tolerant of several different habitats: mountains, tropical and subtropical grasslands, scrublands, and forests...

 quills embedded deep in the skin or old gunshot wounds, which never healed. The Thak man-eating tigress, when skinned by Corbett, revealed two old gunshot wounds; one in her shoulder had become septic, and as Corbett suggested, could have been the reason for the tigress to have turned man-eater. In the foreword of Man Eaters of Kumaon, Corbett writes,
"The wound that has caused a particular tiger to take to man-eating might be the result of a carelessly fired shot and failure to follow up and recover the wounded animal, or be the result of the tiger having lost his temper while killing a porcupine".


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 Man-Eaters of Kumaon. At times, Corbett 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 where he worked.

Hunter turned conservationist

Corbett bought his first camera in the late 1920s, and inspired by his friend F. W. Champion
F. W. Champion
Frederick Walter Champion was an English forester, who worked in British India and East Africa. In the UK and India he became famous in the 1920s as the first wildlife photographer and conservationist....

, started to record tigers on cine film. Although he had an intimate knowledge of the jungle, it was a demanding task to obtain good pictures, as the animals were exceedingly shy. 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. He expressed regret at killing the Bachelor of Powalgarh.

Corbett was deeply concerned about the fate of tigers and their habitat. He lectured to groups of school children about natural heritage and the need to conserve forests and their wildlife; promoted the foundation of the Association for the Preservation of Game in the United Provinces
United Provinces of British India
The United Provinces of British India, more commonly known as the United Provinces, was a province of British India, which came into existence on 3 January 1921 as a result of the renaming of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It corresponded approximately to the combined regions of the...

 and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wildlife. Together with F. W. Champion
F. W. Champion
Frederick Walter Champion was an English forester, who worked in British India and East Africa. In the UK and India he became famous in the 1920s as the first wildlife photographer and conservationist....

 he played a key role in establishing India's first national park in the Kumaon
Kumaon Division
For Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or 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...

 Hills, the Hailey National Park, initially named after Lord Malcolm Hailey. The park was renamed in his honor in 1957.

Retiring in Kenya

After 1947, Corbett and his sister Maggie retired to Nyeri, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, where he continued to write and sound the alarm about declining numbers of jungle cats
Jungle Cat
The jungle cat is a medium-sized cat and considered the largest remaining species of the wild cat genus Felis. The species is also called the swamp lynx but is not closely related to the lynxes....

 and other wildlife. Jim Corbett was at the Tree Tops Hotel
Treetops Hotel
Treetops 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 Elizabeth
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known 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, Belize,...

 stayed there on February 5–6, 1952, at the time of the death of her father, King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth 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.

Legacy

Corbett's home at Chhoti Haldwani, Kaladhungi has been converted into a museum. The 221 acre (0.89435606 km²; 0.345312805316315 sq mi) village, which he bought in 1915, still has his memories intact in the form of the Chaupal called meeting place, Moti House, which Corbett had built for his friend Moti Singh, and the Corbett Wall, an about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long wall built around the village to protect crops from wild animals.

Jim Corbett's first book, Man-eaters of Kumaon, was a great success in India, the United Kingdom and the United States; the first edition of the American Book-of-the-Month Club being 250,000 copies. It was later translated into 27 languages. His fourth book, Jungle Lore, is considered his autobiography.

The Jim Corbett National Park
Jim Corbett National Park
Jim Corbett National Park—named for the hunter and 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 Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

, India has been renamed in his honour in 1957. He had played a key role in establishing this protected area in the 1930s.

In 1968, one of the five remaining subspecies of tigers was named after him: Panthera tigris corbetti, the Indochinese Tiger
Indochinese Tiger
The Indochinese tiger or Corbett's tiger is a subspecies of tiger found in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam and formerly in China. Tigers in peninsular Malaysia, formerly classified as Indochinese, have recently been reclassified as a separate subspecies, Malayan tiger Panthera tigris...

, also called Corbett's tiger.

In 1994 and 2002, the long-neglected graves of Corbett and his sister (both in Kenya) were repaired and restored by Jerry A. Jaleel, founder and director of the Jim Corbett Foundation.

Hollywood movie

In 1948, in the wake of the success of the book Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating tigers and leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths...

a Hollywood film, Man-Eater of Kumaon
Man-Eater of Kumaon
Man-Eater of Kumaon is a 1948 film directed by Byron Haskin. It stars Sabu and Wendell Corey. The film was made after a success of Jim Corbett book Man-Eaters of Kumaon, published in 1944. The film was not based on any of the stories of the Corbett's bestselling book, instead the film was based on...

was filmed (director Byron Haskin
Byron Haskin
Byron Conrad Haskin was an American film and television director. He was born in Portland, Oregon.He is remembered today for directing 1953's The War of the Worlds, one of many films where he teamed with producer George Pal. In his early career, he was a special effects artist, with a number of...

, starring Sabu
Sabu Dastagir
Sabu Dastagir was a film actor of Indian origin—although he later took American citizenship. He was normally credited only by his first name, Sabu, and is primarily known for his work in film during the 1930s-40s in Britain and America.-Early life:Born in 1924 in Karapur, Mysore, Kingdom of...

, Wendell Corey
Wendell Corey
Wendell Reid Corey was an American actor and politician.He was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, the son of Milton Rothwell Corey and Julia Etta McKenney . His father was a Congregationalist clergyman...

 and Joe Page
Joe Page
Joseph Francis Page , nicknamed Fireman and The Gay Reliever, was a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. Page, who was left-handed, played with the New York Yankees from to and with the Pittsburgh Pirates in .-Professional career:Page was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free...

). This was a typical Hollywood production. Film did not follow any of Corbett stories, instead a fictional new story was made up. The film was a flop, although some interesting footage of the tiger was filmed. Corbett is known to have said that "the best actor was the tiger".

Documentary

In 1986, the BBC produced a docudrama titled Man-Eaters of India with Frederick Treves
Frederick Treves (actor)
Frederick William Treves BEM, is an English character actor with an extensive repertoire, specialising in avuncular military and titled types....

 in the role of Jim Corbett. An IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...

 movie India: Kingdom of the Tiger
India: Kingdom of the Tiger
India: The Kingdom of Tiger is a 2002 IMAX documentary, based on writings of Jim Corbett, directed by Bruce Neibaur, about man-eating tigers and the conservation efforts of the tiger in India.-Plot:...

based on Corbett's books, was made in 2002 starring Christopher Heyerdahl
Christopher Heyerdahl
Christopher Heyerdahl is a Canadian actor who has had roles in many prominent television shows and movies. He is tall.-Biography:Heyerdahl was born in the mountains of British Columbia and is of Norwegian and Scottish descent...

 as Jim Corbett. A TV movie based on The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag starring Jason Flemyng
Jason Flemyng
Jason Iain 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...

 was made in 2005.

Books

  • Man-eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, Bombay 1944
  • Man-eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, Madras 1945 (second ed.)
  • Man-eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, 1946
  • The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. Oxford University Press, 1947
  • My India. Oxford University Press, 1952
  • Jungle Lore. Oxford University Press, 1953
  • The Temple Tiger and more man-eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, 1954
  • Tree Tops. Oxford University Press, 1955

See also

  • Literary references to Nainital
    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...

  • Project Tiger
    Project Tiger
    Project Tiger was launched in 1972 in India. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of tigers in their natural habitats and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage for the people. The selection of areas for the reserves represented as close as possible the...

  • Kenneth Anderson (writer)
    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 :...


Further reading

  • Booth, Martin. 1986. Carpet Sahib: A Life of Jim Corbett. Constable, London. ISBN 0094674000 9780094674004
  • Jaleel, J. A. 2001. Under the shadow of man-eaters : the life and legend of Jim Corbett of Kumaon. Orient Longman, New Delhi. ISBN 8125020209 9788125020202
  • Kala, D. C. 1979. Jim Corbett of Kumaon. Ankur Publishing House, New Delhi

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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