Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Jim Corbett

Jim Corbett was a British hunter, tracker and naturalist and the author of several books.  He was born and raised in India during rule of the British Crown in India, referred to the British Raj.  Corbett’s father served as a postmaster with the British government and later Jim would serve in the British Indian Army where he held the rank of Colonel.  He hunted man-eating tigers and leopards that were preying on the people of the nearby villages of the Kumon-Garhwal Regions at the request of the government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.  He hunted man-eaters for a period of 30 years, his last hunt being in 1938.  He published his book, The Man-Eaters of Kumaon in 1944.  Upon retirement he moved to Kenya with his sister Maggie where he died at the age of 79 on April 19th, 1955.  India became a federal republic separate from the British Empire in 1950.

The Man-Eaters of Kumaon documents many of his hunts for man-eating tigers during the early part of the 20th century.  The book is an interesting read.  He starts off with a chapter that discusses why some tigers and leopards become man-eaters and the last chapter is about his experiences trying to photograph tigers wherein he admitted he preferred to shoot them with a camera rather than a firearm.  There is one chapter dedicated to his dog, Robin, who was an English Cocker Spaniel that accompanied him on many of his hunts and assisted him in tracking tigers.    

There is now a National Park that is a tiger sanctuary named after him.  Jim Corbett National Park is in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand state.  It was the first national park in India, it was established in 1936 during the British Raj and named Hailey National Park after William Malcolm Hailey, a governor of the United Provinces in which it was then located.  In 1956 it was renamed Corbett National Park after the hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett, who had played a leading role in its establishment and had died the year before.  The park was the first Tiger sanctuary in India.  

I consider this book an important part of my library of sporting literature, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in sporting and adventure literature.  It is published by Merlin Unwin Books.