Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett naturalist |
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Edward James Corbett
Early life
Edward James Corbett was born on 25 July 1875 of British ancestry in the town of Nainital during British Raj. He grew up in a large family of sixteen children and was the eighth child of Christopher William Corbett and his wife Mary Jane née Prussia who had previously married Dr. Charles James Doyle of Agra, who died at Etawah in 1857.[1] Jim Corbett's parents had moved to Nainital in 1862 after his father had quit military service and been appointed the town's postmaster.[2] In winters, the family used to move to the foothills, where they owned a cottage named "Arundel" in the village now known as Kaladhungi. Corbett's mother was very influential in Nainital's social life among Europeans, and she became a kind of real estate agent for European settlers.[3] His father retired from the position of postmaster in 1878 and died a few weeks after a heart attack on 21 April 1881. Jim was then aged six and his eldest brother Tom took over as postmaster of Nainital.[4]
From a very early age, Jim was fascinated by the forests and the wildlife around his home in Kaladhungi. Through frequent excursions, he learned to identify most animals and birds by their
Before he was nineteen, he quit school and found employment with the
Hunting tigers and leopards
During his life, Corbett tracked and shot several leopards and tigers; about a dozen were well documented man-eaters. Corbett provided estimates of human casualties in his books, including Man-Eaters of Kumaon, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, and The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Calculating the totals from these accounts, these big cats had killed more than 1,200 men, women, and children, according to Corbett. There are some discrepancies in the official human death tolls that the British and Indian governments have on record and Corbett's estimates.
The first designated man-eating tiger he killed, the
Other notable man-eaters he killed were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan man-eater, the
Analysis of carcasses, skulls, and preserved remains show that most of the man-eaters were suffering from disease or wounds, such as
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 Robin, a small dog he wrote about in Man-Eaters of Kumaon.[7]
Hunter and naturalist
Corbett bought his first camera in the late 1920s and—inspired by his friend Frederick Walter Champion—started to record tigers on cine film.[7] Although he had an intimate knowledge of the jungle, it was a demanding task to obtain good pictures, as the animals were exceedingly shy.
A popular misconception is that Corbett never killed a tiger without confirmation of its killing people.[8] For example, Corbett killed the unusually large and most widely sought after Bachelor of Powalgarh, even though this tiger had never killed a human.[9] Together with Champion, he played a key role in establishing India's first national park in the Kumaon Hills, the Hailey National Park, initially named after Lord Hailey. The park was renamed in Corbett's honour in 1957.[10]
While dedicating his book My India to "...my friends, the poor of India", he writes "It is of these people, who are admittedly poor, and who are often described as 'India's starving millions', among whom I have lived and whom I love, that I shall endeavour to tell in the pages of this book, which I humbly dedicate to my friends, the poor of India." Profits from the publication of "Man-Eaters of Kumaon" were donated to St. Dunstan's, a training school for blinded veterans.[citation needed]
Jim Corbett resided in the Gurney House, Nainital along with his sister Maggie Corbett, where their mother moved in 1881 after the death of their father. [11] They sold the house to Mrs. Kalavati Varma, before leaving for Kenya in November 1947. The house is now a private residence, which has been transformed into a museum and is known as the Jim Corbett Museum.
Jim also spent a short time in Chotti Haldwani, a village he had adopted and which came to be known as Corbett's Village. Corbett and the villagers built a wall around the village in 1925 to keep wild animals out of the premises. As of 2018 the wall still stands, and according to villagers has prevented wild animal attacks on villagers since it was built.[12]
Retirement in Kenya
After 1947, Corbett and his sister Maggie retired to
He continued to write and sound the alarm about the declining numbers of wild cats and other wildlife. Corbett was at the
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.
Corbett died of a heart attack a few days after he finished his sixth book, Tree Tops, and was buried at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Nyeri. His memories were kept intact in the form of the meeting place Moti House, which Corbett had built for his friend Moti Singh, and the Corbett Wall, a long wall (approximately 7.2 km (4.5 mi)) built around the village to protect crops from wild animals.
Man-eaters of Kumaon was a great success in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the first edition of the American
The Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, India was 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, 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.[14]
Personal life
Corbett remained unmarried in life.
Hollywood movie
In 1948, in the wake of Man-Eaters of Kumaon's success, a Hollywood film,
Other adaptations
In 1986, the BBC produced a docudrama titled Man-Eaters of Kumaon with Frederick Treves in the role of Corbett. An IMAX movie India: Kingdom of the Tiger, based on Corbett's books, was made in 2002 starring Christopher Heyerdahl as Corbett. A TV movie based on The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag starring Jason Flemyng was made in 2005.[citation needed]
Honours
Corbett received the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal in the 1928 New Year Honours.[16] He was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in the King's 1946 Birthday Honours.[17] Corbett was honored the title of India's first national park, Jim Corbett National Park.
Items named in honour of Corbett's life and work
- A reserve area known as Hailey National Park covering 323.75 km2 (125.00 sq mi) was created in 1936 when Sir Malcolm Hailey was the Governor of United Provinces; and Asia's first national park came into existence. The reserve was renamed in 1954–55 as Ramganga National Park and was again renamed in 1955–56 as Jim Corbett National Park.
- The Vratislav Mazakwho was the first to describe the new subspecies of the tiger living in Southeast Asia
- Stephen Alter's In the Jungles of the Night: A Novel about Jim Corbett (2016) is a fictional account of Corbett's life.
Books
- Jungle Stories. Privately published in 1935 (only 100 copies)
- Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, Bombay 1944
- The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. Oxford University Press, 1948
- 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 (short 30-page novella)
- Jim Corbett's India – Selections by R. E. Hawkins. Oxford University Press, 1978
- My Kumaon: Uncollected Writings. Oxford University Press, 2012
See also
- Literary references to Nainital
- Kenneth Anderson, writer in South India
- Hunter-naturalists of India
- List of famous big game hunters
- Project Tiger
References
- ^ Booth 1986, pp. 20–26.
- ^ Booth 1986, p. 20.
- ^ Booth 1986, p. 29.
- ^ a b Kala, D. C. (1979). Jim Corbett of Kumaon. New Delhi: Ankur Publishing House.
- ^ Corbett, J. (1952). My India. Oxford University Press. p. 183.
- ^ Tiger and leopard attacks in Nepal Archived 24 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine BBC News (11 July 2012)
- ^ ISBN 81-7824-140-4.
- ^ Thapar, V. (2001) Savings Wild Tigers: the essential writings Archived 12 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Permanent Black, Delhi.
- ^ Corbett, J. (1944) Man-Eaters of Kumaon Archived 12 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Oxford University Press.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8018-9304-9.
- ^ "The British lady who pioneered tourism in Nainital 130 years ago". Hindustan Times. 17 June 2018. Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ "In this Nainital village, Corbett's Great Wall stands between villagers, tigers". 18 February 2018. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
- ^ "The day Princess Elizabeth became Queen". Guardian. Daily Telegraph. 8 January 2012. Archived from the original on 9 September 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ Jaleel, J.A. (2009) The Jim Corbett Foundation, Canada[permanent dead link]
- ^ Booth 1986, p. 230.
- ^ "No. 33343". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1927. p. 7.
- ^ "No. 37598". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1946. p. 2763.
Further reading
- Durga Charan Kala (1979). Jim Corbett of Kumaon. Ravi Dayal Publishers.
- ISBN 978-0-09-467400-4.
- Miriam Davidson (1988). Convictions of the Heart: Jim Corbett and the Sanctuary Movement. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-1034-4.
- Tim Werling (1 December 1998). Jim Corbett: Master of the Jungle. Safari Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-57157-104-5.
- Jerry A. Jaleel (1 January 2001). Under the Shadow of Man-eaters: The Life and Legend of Jim Corbett of Kumaon. Orient Longman. ISBN 978-81-250-2020-2.
- Anand S. Khati (1 January 2003). Jim Corbett of India: Life & Legend of a Messiah. Pelican Creations International. ISBN 978-81-86738-10-8.
- ISBN 978-81-7824-081-7.
- Reeta Dutta Gupta (1 April 2006). Jim Corbett : The Hunter Conservationist. Rupa & Company. ISBN 978-81-291-0893-7.
- Peter Byrne (1 January 2007). Gentlemen Hunter. Safari Press. ISBN 978-1571572257.
- Priyvrat Gadhvi, Preetum Gheerawo, Manfred Waltl, ISBN 978-9941-437-92-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2017.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Preetum Gheerawo, Manfred Waltl, Ali Akhtar, Priyvrat Gadhvi, ISBN 978-9941-468-85-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2020.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Duff Hart-Davis (2 September 2021). Hero of Kumaon : The Life of Jim Corbett. Merlin Unwin Books. ISBN 978-19-131-5926-9.