James Edward "Jim" Corbett CIE VD (25 July 1875

19 April 1955) was an British-I

ndian hunter and tracker-turned-conservationist, author and naturalist, famous f
or hunting a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India.
Corbett held the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army and was frequently c
alled upon by the government of the United Provinces, now the Indian states of U
ttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, to kill man-eating tigers and leopards that were p
reying on people in the nearby villages of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions.
Corbett was an avid photographer and after his retirement authored Man-Eaters of
Kumaon, Jungle Lore, and other books recounting his hunts and experiences, whic
h enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success. Later on in life, Corbett spo
ke 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. In 1957 th
e national park was renamed Jim Corbett National Park in his honour.
Contents [hide]
1
Early life
2
Hunting man-eating tigers and leopards
3
Hunter turned conservationist
4
Retiring in Kenya
4.1
Hollywood movie
4.2
Other adaptations
5
Honours
6
Books
7
See also
8
References
9
Further reading
10
External links
Early life[edit]
Corbett was born of Irish ancestry in the town of Nainital in the Kumaon of the
Himalaya (now in the Indian state of Uttarakhand). He grew up in a large family
of 16 children and was the eighth child of William Christopher and Mary Jane Cor
bett. His parents had moved to Nainital in 1862, after Christopher Corbett had b
een appointed the town's postmaster. In winters, the family used to move to the
foothills, where they owned a cottage named 'Arundel' in Chhoti Haldwani or "Cor
bett's Village", now known as Kaladhungi. After his father's death, when Jim was
4 years old, his eldest brother Tom took over as postmaster of Nainital. From a
very young age, Jim was fascinated by the forests and wildlife around his home
in Kaladhungi. At a young age, through frequent excursions, he learned to identi
fy most animals and birds by their calls. Over time he became a good tracker and
hunter. He studied at Oak Openings School, later merged with Philander Smith Co
llege in Nainital (later known as Halett War School, and now known as Birla Vidy
a 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 M
anakpur in the Punjab, and subsequently as a contractor for the trans-shipment o
f goods across the Ganges at Mokameh Ghat in Bihar.[1]
Hunting man-eating tigers and leopards[edit]
It has been suggested that Tigers of Chowgarh be merged into this section. (Disc
uss) Proposed since March 2016.
During his life Corbett tracked and shot a number of leopards and tigers, though
only about a dozen were actually well documented man-eaters. It is claimed[by w
hom?] that these big cats had killed more than 1,200 men, women and children.[ci
tation needed] The first tiger he killed, the Champawat Tiger in Champawat, was
responsible for 436 documented deaths.[2]
Though most of his kills were tigers, Corbett successfully killed at least two m

an-eating leopards. The first was the Panar Leopard in 1910, which allegedly kil
led 400 people. The second was the man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag in 1926, wh
ich terrorized the pilgrims on the holy Hindu shrines Kedarnath and Badrinath fo
r 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-e
ater, the Thak man-eater, the Muktesar man-eater and the Chowgarh tigress.
Analysis of carcasses, skulls and preserved remains show that most of the man-ea
ters were suffering from disease or wounds, such as porcupine quills embedded de
ep in the skin or gunshot wounds that had not healed. The Thak man-eating tigres
s, when skinned by Corbett, revealed two old gunshot wounds; one in her shoulder
had become septic, and could have been the reason for the tigress's having turn
ed man-eater, Corbett suggested. In the foreword of Man Eaters of Kumaon, Corbet
t 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 wound
ed 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 oft
en hunted with Robin, a small dog he wrote about in Man-Eaters of Kumaon.[3]
Hunter turned conservationist[edit]
Corbett bought his first camera in the late 1920s and, inspired by his friend Fr
ederick Walter Champion, started to record tigers on cine film.[3] Although he h
ad an intimate knowledge of the jungle, it was a demanding task to obtain good p
ictures, as the animals were exceedingly shy.
It is widely believed that Corbett did not kill a tiger without confirmation of
its killing people.[4] However, Corbett killed the unusually large and most wide
ly sought after Bachelor of Powalgarh even though this tiger had never killed a
human.[5]
Corbett took to lecturing groups of schoolchildren about their natural heritage
and the need to conserve forests and their wildlife.[citation needed] He promote
d the foundation of the Association for the Preservation of Game in the United P
rovinces and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wildlife.[citation
needed] Together with Champion he played a key role in establishing India's fir
st national park in the Kumaon Hills, the Hailey National Park, initially named
after Lord Malcolm Hailey. The park was renamed in Corbett's honour in 1957.[6]
Corbett was a humanist[citation needed] and deeply empathized with the poor, inn
ocent locals living in and around the Corbett village or Kaladhoongi in the Unit
ed Province (now Uttrakhand).[citation needed] As a railway contractor he employ
ed scores of Indians at Mokameh Ghat.[citation needed] While dedicating his book
My India to "...my friends, the poor of India", he writes "It is of these peopl
e, who are admittedly poor, and who are often described as 'India's starving mil
lions', among whom I have lived and whom I love, that I shall endeavor to tell i
n the pages of this book, which I humbly dedicate to my friends, the poor of Ind
ia."
Retiring in Kenya[edit]
Jim Corbett resided in the Gurney House along with his sister Maggie Corbett. Th
ey sold the house to Mrs. Kalavati Varma, before leaving for Kenya in November 1
947. The house has been transformed into a museum and is known as the Jim Corbet
t Museum.
After 1947, Corbett and his sister Maggie retired to Nyeri, Kenya,[6] where he c

ontinued to write and sound the alarm about declining numbers of wild cats and o
ther wildlife. Corbett was at the Tree Tops, a hut built on the branches of a gi
ant 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 vi
sitors' 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 e
xperience, 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 buil
t 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.
Man-eaters of Kumaon was a great success in India, the United Kingdom and the Un
ited States, the first edition of the American Book-of-the-Month Club being 250,
000 copies. It was later translated into 27 languages. Corbett's fourth book, Ju
ngle 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: Pan
thera 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 K
enya) were repaired and restored by Jerry A. Jaleel, founder and director of the
Jim Corbett Foundation.[7]
Hollywood movie[edit]
In 1948, in the wake of Man-Eaters of Kumaon's success, a Hollywood film, Man-Ea
ter of Kumaon, was made, directed by Byron Haskin and starring Sabu, Wendell Cor
ey and Joe Page. The film did not follow any of Corbett's stories; a new story w
as invented. 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".[
8]
Other adaptations[edit]
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, ba
sed on Corbett's books, was made in 2002 starring Christopher Heyerdahl as Corbe
tt. A TV movie based on The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag starring Jason Fle
myng was made in 2005.
Honours[edit]
Corbett received the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal in the 1928 New Year Honours.[9] In the
19 . He was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in the King's 19
46 Birthday Honours.[10]