As an Englishman who was more Indian than an Indian himself, Jim Corbett led a life full of adventure. His stories of shikar is stuff of the legends. I am no fan of non-fiction. My bookshelves are almost exclusively occupied by fiction novels. But there are always exceptions, and this is one of them. Read ahead to know more about the man who inspired a whole generation of wildlife enthusiasts.
About the Author:
Edward James Corbett CIE VD (25 July 1875 – 19 April 1955) was an Indian-born British hunter, tracker and naturalist and author. He frequently assisted the Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh who called him to kill man-eating tigers and leopards that were attacking people in the nearby villages of the Kumaon and Garhwal Divisions. He recounted his hunts and experiences in books like Man-Eaters of Kumaon, which enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success. Jim Corbett was also an avid photographer and spoke out for the need to protect India’s wildlife from extermination.
Taken from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Corbett
Review: The Jim Corbett Omnibus
If his stories are anything to go by, Jim Corbett is one the most interesting people I have ever read about. His background you came to know in the ‘about the author section’. Let us now look at his works. Because as Ruskin Bond has rightly said, “His (Jim Corbett’s) skills as a hunter brought him fame, but his stories turned him into a legend.”
A majority of Jim Corbett’s work can be found as a part of two omnibuses. The first one contains stories about him hunting man-eaters. The second contains stories of his experience with, as he called them, his ‘friends, the poor of India’. During his career as a hunter which lasted from 1917 to 1938, he killed 33 man-eaters. 19 tigers and 14 leopards. This list included the infamous man-eater leopard of Rudraprayag (estimated 150 human kills), and the Champawat tigress (estimated 436 human kills). In addition he hunted many other tigers such as the Chowgarh tigress, and the Talla Des man-eater, who had been tormeting the people of the area for many years. These tales are contained in his works ‘The Man-Eaters of Kumaon’, and ‘The Temple Tigers and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon’.
Corbett’s stories are not just tales of hunting, however. They are also rich in detail about the Indian jungle, its wildlife, and its people. Corbett was a keen observer of nature, and his descriptions of the jungle are vivid and evocative. He also writes with empathy about the people who lived in the jungle, and he shows a deep understanding of their culture and beliefs. His language is descriptive without being boring, and immediately transports you back in time to that era of the British Raj. His stories about the people of India paint a very vivid picture of life during those times, and the actual ground situation. It is surprisingly quite different than what we are taught in school.
The Jim Corbett stories have often garnered controversy, with people arguing that the man-eaters could be captured and released elsewhere. Jim Corbett, however, killed them in the most human way possible. After reading his stories there can be no doubt that he cared just as much about the animals he killed, as about the people the animal tormented. Never once has he criticised a man-eater. And once he very clearly stated that the animal had to die because it had violated the laws of humans, not the law of the jungle.
Jim Corbett believed that the law of the jungle was far superior to the law of humans. He has written: “He (Winston Churchill) says that the war caused such widespread destruction because the humans behaved like animals. However, I believe that had the law of the jungle prevailed, many lives would have been saved.” He goes on to justify his statement by giving an anecdote. Once while tracking a tiger, he saw that the tiger came across a fawn. The fawn would clearly have been unable to run fast, making it easy for the hungry tiger (Corbett knew that the tiger hadn’t had a meal for two days), with a meal. However, the tiger chose to leave it alone, and made his way towards a group of adult ghooral some distance away.
Lovers of wildlife and adventure stories will find his works a treasure trove of highly entertaining stories. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t like non-fiction. But this is one man whose stories have compelled me to make an exception.
Outro:
This is a book I keep going back to. I never tire of re-reading these stories. I hope you liked the review. If you did, please consider subscribing to the blog to get an update whenever I post something new. Until next time, goodbye!