“The book of nature has no beginning, as it has no end. Open this book where you will, and at any period of your life, and if you have the desire to acquire knowledge you will find it of intense interest, and no matter how long or how intently you study the pages, your interest will not flag, for in nature there is no finality.”
― Jim Corbett
The esteemed Jim Corbett National Park was established in the year 1936 as a part of the larger Corbett Tiger Reserve. The Corbett has been the pride of Uttarakhand situated in its Nainital district and one of the most popular tourist destinations. It was initially established as Hailey National Park and has also been a landmark site for heralding the Project Tiger in 1973.Since then; the reserve has been quite active in preserving and protecting the most precious endangered species of the tigers.
Jim Corbett in Jungle Lore comments, “The time I spent in the jungles held unalloyed happiness for me, and that happiness I would now gladly share. My happiness, I believe, resulted from the fact that all wildlife is happy in its natural surroundings. In nature there is no sorrow, and no repining. A bird from a flock, or an animal from a herd, is taken by hawk or carnivorous beast and those that are left rejoice that their time had not come today, and have no thought of tomorrow.” The park, at the foothills of Himalayan belt, stretches across over 520 square kilometers and is home to 488 varied species of flora and fauna.
Although Bengal Tiger is the most sort after attraction and one of the most critically endangered species protected under the reserve, but the reserve also houses variety of Elephants, Nilgai, Chital, Gharial, Sambar, Wild Boar, Hedgehog, Common Musk Shrew, Flying Fox, Indian Pangolin, King Cobra and approximately 600 varied species of birds. Besides the exquisite variety of fauna, the landscape exhibits hills, marshy depressions, river beds, grasslands and large lakes.
“…tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage and that when he is exterminated—as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support—India will be the poorer, having lost the finest of her fauna.”
Jim Corbett, Man-eaters of Kumaon
The Bengal Tiger is one of the most magnanimous stars of the Jim Corbett National Park and is also one of the most celebrated of the wild animals in India. It is a creature that epitomizes the power of nature in its purely rustic form. Moreover, it is quite significant toour culture, mythology and legends. It has been worshiped as the ruler of the forest and a ride for Goddess Durga by the Hindus. It is said that tigers have evolved in East Asia (China) about two million years ago. Later on, they are known to spread to other parts of Asia. There are eight subspecies of tiger in all and out of which three have gone extinct. It is a matter of immense pride for India that the country gives shelter to the largest population of wild tigers in the world. Recent census estimates that there only about 5000 to 7500 tigers surviving in the world. The Royal Bengal Tiger has 3000-4500 surviving members existing in Indian subcontinent, more than three-fourths of which are present in India.
The Terai-Bhabar region, including the area of Corbett National Park was once the best habitat for tigers but has been reduced to a sorry state to a great extent due to extreme deforestation in the region. Tiger is on top of the food pyramid due to its extremely agile predatory skills and mobility. It helps in maintaining and controlling the ecological balance of the park by being an excellent hunter.
Tigers usually hunt down wild boar, deer (preferably chital and barking deer) and Sambar. The increase in the population of the Sambar is believed to be a good indicator of the presence of tigers in the Corbett. Sometimes, tigers also hunt young elephants and smaller species, including birds, reptiles, fish and monkeys. Tigers in India have the greatest reputation as man-eaters. Jim Corbett through his manuscripts and wonderful writings such as Man Easters of Kumaon has penned down adventurous accounts of the same.
The weather in the park is temperate compared to most other protected areas of India. The temperature may vary from 5 °C (41 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F) during the winter and some mornings are foggy. Summer temperatures normally do not rise above 40 °C (104 °F).Rainfall ranges from light during the dry season to heavy during the monsoons.
An economic assessment study of Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve estimated its annual flow benefits to be 14.7 billion (1.14 lakh / hectare). Important ecosystem services included gene-pool protection (10.65 billion), provisioning of water to downstream districts of Uttar Pradesh (1.61 billion), water purification services to the city of New Delhi (550 million), employment for local communities (82 million), provision of habitat and refugia for wildlife (274 million) and sequestration of carbon (214 million).
Corbett National Park has been exclusively divided into five different zones in order to enhance tourist inflow of the much sort after holiday destination at Uttarakhand. These are the marked buffer or core area of the park where visitors can enjoy wildlife safari and cherish the intriguing behavior of the animals closely. There are four gate which act as entrance points for the park; Amanda gate, Dhangarhi gate, Khara gate and Durga Devi gate. It also must be noted that the traveler should consider booking safaris prior to their visit, especially during weekends as there are only 60 vehicles allowed inside the Corbett National Park at a time.
