#memory
Jim Corbett.
25 July is the birth anniversary of Col. Jim Corbett (1875-1955).
JimCorbett is today revered as the pioneer in Wildlife Conservation and author. India’s oldest national park is named after him.
Corbett was born in Nainital in British India to the British couple, Christopher William Corbett and Mary Jane. He quit school at 19, and found employment with the Bengal North-Western Railway, and later as a contractor of trans-shipment goods. He served in World War II and retired as a Colonel.
Corbett developed a fascination for forests and wildlife at a very early age. With time, he turned into a good tracker and hunter.
He services were quite often sought after by the Government of United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand), to kill man-eating tigers and leopards. He never killed a big cat without confirming that it had harmed a human.
Over the years, Corbett’s love for animals translated into wildlife photography. Inspired by his friend, Frederick Walter Champion, he stared to record tigers on film. He also used to lecture school children on the country’s natural heritage, forests and wildlife.
Corbett later authored several books like Man-Eaters of Kumaon, The Man- eating Leopard of Rudraprayag,
and Jungle Lore, that vividly described his hunting adventures. His autobiography is named My India. All his books attained critical and popular acclaim.
In later years , Corbett took to spearheading the movement for animal conservation. He founded the Association for the Preservation of Game in the United Provinces, and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wildlife.
Corbett played a key role in establishing India’s first national park, Hailey, as a national reserve for the endangered Bengal Tiger. In 1957, the park was renamed Jim Corbett National Park in his honour.
In November 1947, Corbett and his sister left for Kenya, after selling their house in Kumaon. The house was later turned into the Jim Corbett Museum, which attracts hundreds of tourists.
On April 19, 1955, Jim Corbett died of a heart attack in Nyeri, Kenya, after finishing his sixth book, Tree Tops.
In 1968, one of the five remaining sub-species of tigers in India was named after him as Panthera Tigris Corbetti, or Corbett’s Tiger.
– Joy Kallivayalil.
