Jim Corbett (hunter)

For other people of the same name, see Jim Corbett.

Edward James "Jim" Corbett
Jim Corbett
Born	(1875-07-25)25 July 1875 Nainital, United Provinces, British India (now India)
Died	19 April 1955(1955-04-19) (aged 79) Nyeri, Kenya
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	hunter, naturalist, writer

Edward James "Jim" Corbett (25 July 1875 in Nainital, India – 19 April 1955 in Nyeri, Kenya) was a legendary British hunter and tracker-turned-conservationist, author and naturalist, famous for hunting a large number of man-eaters in India.

Corbett held the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army and was frequently called upon by the government of the United Provinces, now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, to kill man-eating tigers and leopards that were preying on people in the nearby villages of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions. His hunting successes earned him a long-held respect and fame amongst the people residing in the villages of Kumaon. Some even claim that he was considered to be a sadhu (saint) by the locals.

Corbett was an avid photographer and after his retirement, authored the Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore, and other books recounting his hunts and experiences, which enjoyed much critical acclaim and commercial success. Later on in life, Corbett spoke out for the need to protect India's wildlife from extermination and played a key role in creating a national reserve for the endangered Bengal tiger by using his influence to persuade the provincial government to establish it. The national park was renamed Jim Corbett National Park in his honour in 1957 after his death in 1955.

Early life

Edward James Corbett was born of Irish ancestry in the town of Nainital in the Kumaon of the Himalaya (now in the Indian state of Uttarakhand). 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 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 Nainital (later known as Halett War School, and now known as Birla Vidya Mandir, Nainital). Before he was 19, he quit school and found employment with the Bengal and North Western Railway, initially working as a fuel inspector at Manakpur in the Punjab, and subsequently as a contractor for the trans-shipment of goods across the Ganges at Mokameh Ghat in Bihar.

Hunting man-eating tigers and leopards

Jim Corbett after killing the man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag in 1926

Between 1907 and 1938, Corbett tracked and shot a total of 33 man-eaters, though only about a dozen were actually well documented. It is claimed that these big cats had killed more than 1,200 men, women and children. The first tiger he killed, the Champawat Tiger in Champawat, was responsible for 436 documented deaths. Though most of his kills were tigers, Corbett successfully killed at least two man-eating leopards. The first was the Panar Leopard in 1910, which allegedly killed 400 people. The second was the man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag in 1926, which terrorized the pilgrims on the holy Hindu shrines Kedarnath and Badrinath for more than eight years, claiming responsibility for more than 126 deaths.

Other notable man-eaters he killed were the Talla-Des man-eater, the Mohan man-eater, the Thak man-eater, the Mukteshwar man-eater and the Chowgarh tigress.

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 that had 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's having 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. He was deeply respected in the areas where he worked.

Hunter turned conservationist

Corbett bought his first camera in the late 1920s, and inspired by his friend Frederick Walter Champion, 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.

Corbett became deeply concerned about the fate of tigers and their habitat. Corbett took to lecturing groups of school children about their natural heritage and the need to conserve forests and their wildlife. He promoted the foundation of the Association for the Preservation of Game in the United Provinces and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wildlife. 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 Malcolm Hailey. The park was renamed in his honour in 1957.

Retiring in 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 Tree Tops, a hut built on the branches of a giant ficus tree, when Princess Elizabeth stayed there on 5–6 February 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. His memories were kept 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, a long wall (approximately 4.5 miles (7.2 km)) 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 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.

Hollywood movie

In 1948, in the wake of the success of the book Man-Eaters of Kumaon a Hollywood film, Man-Eater of Kumaon was filmed (director Byron Haskin, starring Sabu, Wendell Corey and Joe Page). This was a typical Hollywood production. The film did not follow any of Corbett's 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".^{[citation needed]}

Other adaptations

In 1986, the BBC produced a docudrama titled Man-Eaters of India with Frederick Treves in the role of Jim Corbett. An IMAX movie India: Kingdom of the Tiger based on Corbett's books, was made in 2002 starring Christopher Heyerdahl as Jim Corbett. A TV movie based on The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag starring Jason Flemyng was made in 2005.

Books

Jim Corbett with the slain Bachelor of Powalgarh.

• Jungle Stories. Privately Published 1935 (only 100 copies)

Contents: Wild Life in the Village: An Appeal, The Pipal Pani Tiger, The Fish of My Dreams, A Lost Paradise, The Terror that Walks by Night, Purna Girl and Its Mysterious Lights, The Chowgarh Tigers

• Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, Bombay 1944

Contents: Authors note (causes of maneating), The Champawat Maneater, Robin, Chowgarh Tigers, The Bachelor of Powalgarh, The Mohan Maneater, Fish of my dreams, The Kanda Maneater, The Pipal Pani tiger, The Thak Man-eater, Just Tigers

• The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. Oxford University Press, 1947

Contents: The Pilgrim Road, The Man-Eater, Terror, Arrival, Investigation, The First Kill, Locating the Leopard, The Second Kill, Preparations, Magic, A Near Escape, The Gin Trap, The Hunters Hunted, Retreat, Fishing Interlude, Death of a Goat, Cyanide Poisoning, Touch and Go, A Lesson in Caution, A Wild Boar Hunt, Vigil on a Pine Tree, My Night of Terror, Leopard fights Leopard, A Shot in the Dark, Epilogue

• My India. Oxford University Press, 1952

Contents: Dedication & Introduction, The Queen of the Village, Kunwar Singh, Mothi, Pre Red Tape Days, The Law of the Jungle, The Brothers, Sultana: India's Robin Hood, Loyalty, Budhu, Lalajee, Chamari, Life at Mokameh Ghat

• Jungle Lore. Oxford University Press, 1953

Contents: Introduction by Martin Booth, Dansay, Learning to Shoot, Magog, Looking Back, Jungle Encounters, Categories, Jungle Lore, Calls of the Jungle, School Days / Cadets, Forest Fire & Beats, Game Tracks, Jungle Sensitiveness

• The Temple Tiger and more man-eaters of Kumaon. Oxford University Press, 1954

Contents: The Temple Tiger, The Muktesar Man-Eater, The Panar Man-Eater, The Chuka Man-Eater, The Talla Des Man-Eayer, Epilogue

• Tree Tops. Oxford University Press, 1955 (short 30 page novella)
• Jim Corbett's India - Selections by R.E. Hawkins. Oxford University Press, 1978

Contents: Introduction, Kunwar Singh, Schooldays, Loyalty, Life at Mokameh Ghat, Mothi, The Law of the Jungles, The Muktesar Man-eater, The Panar Leopard, Goongi (previously unpublished), The Pipal Pani Tiger, The Pilgrim Road, Terror, Vigil on a Pine Tree, The Chowgarh Tigers, The Bachelor of Powalgarh, The Fish of My Dreams, Robin, Wild Life in the Village-An Appeal (previously unpublished), The Mohan Man-Eater, Just Tigers, On Man-Eating, Looking Back

• My Kumaon: Uncollected Writings. Oxford University Press, 2012

Contents: Publisher's Note; Timeline; Preface: 'how I Came To Write '; A Life Well Lived: An Introduction To Jim Corbett By Lord Hailey; Section One: The Unpublished Corbett-The Night Jar's Egg; 'one Of Us'; From My Jungle Camp; The Rudraprayag Letters; Corbett On The Man-Eating Leopard Of Rudraprayag; The Making Of Corbett's My India: Correspondence With His Editors; 'shooting' Tigers: Corbett And The Camera; Wildlife In The Village: An Environmental Appeal; An Englishman In India; Life In Kenya; Section Two: Corbett And His Audience-'The Artlessness Of His Art'; The Man Revealed: Corbett In His Writings; The Universal Appeal Of Jim Corbett: Letters And Reviews; Deliverance For Rudraprayag: Reactions To The Slaying Of The Man-Eating Leopard By Corbett; Corbett's Influence: Man-Eaters Of Kumaon And The Chindwara Court Case; Epigraph

See also

• Literary references to Nainital
• Project Tiger
• Kenneth Anderson (writer)

Further reading

• Booth, Martin. 1986. Carpet Sahib: A Life of Jim Corbett. Constable, London. ISBN 0-09-467400-0, ISBN 978-0-09-467400-4
• Jaleel, J. A. 2001. Under the shadow of man-eaters : the life and legend of Jim Corbett of Kumaon. Orient Longman, New Delhi. ISBN 81-250-2020-9, ISBN 978-81-250-2020-2
• Kala, D. C. 1979. Jim Corbett of Kumaon. Ankur Publishing House, New Delhi

External links

• My Kumaon: Uncollected Writings by Jim Corbett - Book Review
• The Corbett Foundation India
• Jim Corbett Tribute and Memorial website