Corbett's pivotal role in shaping the Indian tiger's image through his acclaimed writings, countering earlier negative portrayals, has to be celebrated
On his 150th birth anniversary which falls on July 25, 2025, Jim Corbett’s legacy will continue to be inextricably linked to the Indian tiger. For two reasons, mainly.
Firstly, through his written words, he brought the tiger into sharp relief. All the Corbett’s books, starting with the superb Man-Eaters of Kumaon in 1944, are still in print. That’s no small achievement. The momentum which the tiger’s reputation as the marvel of Indian forests gained through his books is still going strong in various national parks and sanctuaries of India
Giving tiger a bad name
But Corbett’s equally large contribution has been in pulling the tiger from the jaws of ignominy which Rudyard Kipling had brought to it from his highly popular Jungle Books. Portraying the tiger as the blackest of villains, Kipling’s `Sher Khan’ sent shivers down the spines of readers and film-goers (thanks to Walt Disney’s 1967 film with the same title: Jungle Book) for several generations.
Of course, this grossly incorrect portrayal of the tiger as a crazy, blood-thirsty monstrosity sat well with the royalty of the day – from Lord Curzon onwards – for whom bagging a tiger remained the biggest reward for trophy hunters. To make matters worse, by portraying Baghera (the leopard) as Mowgli’s true friend and benefactor and Sher Khan as his enemy no.1, Kipling demonstrated how little he knew of Indian wildlife.
No doubt Corbett’s ‘large-hearted gentlemen’, i.e., the tiger, has been getting quite a lot of bad press of late because of increasing man-animal conflicts in various parts of the sub-continent. But the fact remains that in the hills of Kumaon and Garhwal (as also in many other parts off India), more people are being attacked, maimed and killed by leopards than by tigers.
Corbett the author
So much has been written about Jim Corbett the celebrated hunter-turned-conservationist, but not about Jim Corbett the author. That’s a pity. Because he was a writer par excellence – and the fact that none of Corbett’s books is out of print is a testimony to his excellent writing skill.
Also read: How Jim Corbett typed his books, about man-eating tigers and leopards, with one finger
How good is Corbett as a writer? You can judge for yourself. Here is a passage from his celebrated Man-Eaters of Kumaon.
While tracking down 'The Mohan' Man-eater, Corbett approaches an over hanging rock and suddenly stops in his tracks.
Something was just not right in front of him, he felt. In his own words:
“On the fourth evening, when I was returning at sunset after visiting the buffalo on the ridge, as I came round a bend in the road thirty yards from the overhanging rock, I suddenly, and for the first time since my arrival at Kartkanoula, felt I was in danger, and that the danger that threatened me was on the rock in front of me. For five minutes I stood perfectly still with my eyes fixed on the upper edge of the rock, watching for movement. At that short range the flicker of an eyelid would have caught my eyes, but there was not even this small movement; and after going forward ten paces, I again stood watching for several minutes.
“The fact that I had seen no movement did not in any way reassure me — the man-eater was on the rock, of that I was sure; and the question was, what was I going to do about it? The hill, as I have already told you, was very steep, had great rocks jutting out of it, and was overgrown with long grass and tree and scrub jungle. Bad as the going was, had it been earlier in the day I would have gone back and worked round and above the tiger to try to get a shot at him, but with only half an hour of daylight left, and the best part of a mile still to go, it would have been madness to have left the road. So, slipping up the safety-catch and putting the rifle to my shoulder, I started to pass the rock.
“The road here was about eight feet wide, and going to the extreme outer edge I started walking crab-fashion, feeling each step with my feet before putting my weight down to keep from stepping off into space. Progress was slow and difficult, but as I drew level with the overhanging rock and then began to pass it, hope rose high that the tiger would remain where he was until I reached that part of the road from which the flat bit of ground above the rock, on which he was lying, was visible. The tiger, however, having failed to catch meoff my guard was taking no chances, and I had just got clear of the rock when I heard a low muttered growl above me, and a little later first a kakar went off barking to the right, and then two hind sambur started belling near the crest of the triangular hill. The tiger had got away with a sound skin, but for the matter of that, so had I.”
Carpet sahib
The celebrated son of Kumaon is still revered as “Carpet Sahib”’ at many places in Uttarakhand. Stories of his benevolence and heroism (his favourite method of tracking down a man-eating tiger or a leopard was on foot, all alone) have long since enshrined in the hill state’s folklore.
