Hunter, conservationist, superstitious and prone to supernatural sounds and sightings. A "cruel" trophy collector, yet "heartbroken" to see to a tiger laid to rest due to a wound or old age. These are some aspects of ace hunter Jim Corbett persona which are brought out in a new book.
Jim Corbett: The Hunter-Conservationist by Reeta Dutta Gupta is a biography of this person who pioneered the effort to preserve Inida's wildlife in the early 1930's.
"Corbett's name at once conjures up in the mind's eye magnificent tigers with golden eyes and flaming coats painted by nature with dark stripes play hide and seek in shadow and sunlight," writes the author, who tracks Corbett's life from the jungles of Kumaon, Nainital, Mussoorie to the wilderness of Nairobi on the African mainland.
The book details incidents of the hunter-naturalist's childhood days when he worked to master the art of imitating the warning calls of birds and animals in the jungles of Nainital.
Born as Edward James Corbett on July 25, 1875, in Kumaon he spent his childhood in the jungles of Kaladhungi in the United Provinces (now in Uttaranchal) and befriended the village boys and picked up their dialects. This quality of the young Corbett, Dutta observes, was a good enough reason to endear him to the local people.
The jungles of Kaladhungi were a standing testimony of Corbett's hunting skills, she writes. It was in these forests he first saw a tiger and shot his last man-eater too.
The author quotes Corbett from his books. In his The Champawat Man-eater, Corbett, who only hunted man-eaters writes, 'There is no more terrible thing than to live and have one's being under the shadow of a man-eater'.
In Life in Mokhameh Ghat Corbett explains how his job gave him opportunity to indulge in one of his hobbies - the study of human beings, the book says.
{{/usCountry}}In Life in Mokhameh Ghat Corbett explains how his job gave him opportunity to indulge in one of his hobbies - the study of human beings, the book says.
{{/usCountry}}"Though an Anglican by birth Corbett was influenced by Hinduism - the religion of his birthplace. Hailed as a "Gora Sadhu" by villagers, he attended Hindu festivals, made grand offerings, and constructed a temple of Devi Mata near Kaladungi," the Gupta writes.
A fierce hunter, Corbett underwent a complete transformation in the mid-1930s when he gave up hunting as a sport and called in earnest for the protection of wildlife from mass slaughtering.
"Corbett raised his voice against the lamentable ignorance of those who condemned the lord of the jungle, the tiger, as blood-thirsty and cruel," writes the author.