Jim Corbett was the man who made Nainital an internationally known city. He was the first writer, after Rudyard Kipling and Premchand, to mention Nainital in his works. It was through his wonderful books mainly that the world first read about the beautiful lake city.
Today is the 138th birth anniversary of this great conservationist and writer who was born on July 25, 1875 in Nainital, the eighth child of Mary Jane Corbett and Christopher Corbett who was a postmaster at Nainital.
While the summers were spent in Nainital, the winters were spent in the foothills below, at Kaladhungi. It was at Kaladhungi that Tom, Jim’s eldest brother, taught him how to handle a gun. It was here that he got his primary lessons in jungle lore.
Jim shot his first leopard at the age of eight. From the mid-1920s, he put down the gun and took up the camera and the pen. His undying love for India was honoured when the national park he helped set up at the foot of Kumaon hills was renamed after him in 1957.
Corbett was a friend of every villager and sat on the Panchayat, giving his advice and suggestions. He was, in fact, a true native of Kumaon. He ate native food and followed the local customs. He knew the forests better than many a native. Between 1907 and 1938 he killed ten large man eaters of Kumaon.
Renowned Wildlife Expert AJT Johnsingh, who devoured the stories of Jim Corbett in Tamil translation during childhood, describes Jim Corbett as “a demi-God in my childhood memories.” “His absorbing descriptions of jungle lore which I read as a child in the local library kindled my desire to become a student of nature for life.”
“My life began in the southern end of South India in Nanguneri and it was there, one dusty afternoon, that I accidentally discovered a Tamil translation of “Maneaters of Kumaon.” “It cast a spell on me that still has not lifted.”
At the foothills of the Kumaon Himalayas lies a serene little village, once the personal property of the famous Jim Corbett, which keeps alive till this day the memories of his life and times. People know Nainital and they know Haldwani, but not many people know of ‘Chhoti Haldwani’ which is Corbett country in the true sense.
Stories about Corbett, known as ‘Carbet Sahib’ or ‘Carpet Sahib’ among the villagers do the rounds in this picturesque village in Nainital district all the time and these have served even as bedtime tales for the village kids for the past sixty years.
The name of the village was given to it by Corbett himself when he bought this sal forest estate and developed it into a model village, first settling forty families in it. His own house in the village is called ‘Arundel’.
On the occasion of Corbett’s birth anniversary, the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti organised, as it does every year, festivities involving villagers and school children. Dancing, singing and little skits based on the life of Corbett are part of the celebrations.
‘Jim Corbett Heritage Trail’ is managed and interpreted by the villagers of Chhoti Haldwani and provides a unique experience of the work done by Jim Corbett to develop a model Kumaoni village. Covering a distance of about 3 km, the trail takes the visitor a couple of hours to complete.