Jim Corbett – Man and His Mission

Jim Corbett: The Man and His Missiontc "Jim Corbett\: The Man and His Mission"

Nearly a century ago, a man, armed with a rifle, walked the thick jungles of Kumaon in the United Provinces (the present day Uttar Pradesh) in hot pursuit of the tigers – turned man-eaters, creating a high drama of hide-and seek played between man and the deadly beast.

The man, Jim Corbett, penned his adventures and expeditions into hair-raising narratives enriching hunting literature. He proved himself to be skilled in wielding both his pen and his gun and thus established himself as one of the foremost writers of literature on hunting.

His popular works--My India, Man Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore, and The Man –Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag give evidence of his elegant style of narration and make absorbing reading.  The books earned him a niche in the non-fiction literature of English.  The literary value and popularity of his writings is evidenced in being prescribed for English studies in Indian education, at different levels.

But then, there is another side to the story. His love of nature is amply demonstrated by his greater interest in shooting wild life with his camera rather than with his gun.  No wonder then that the Jim Corbett National Park in U.P. is dedicated to the memory of such a man as a token of the love of a grateful nation.  It comes more into focus when we consider the ever-increasing poaching activity and mindless deforestation of the present day leading to ecological imbalance and jeopardising the very life of man vis-à-vis the flora and fauna.  Man is found foolishly hacking the branch on which he is seated himself.

When Corbett’s birth centenary was celebrated in 1975 with great fan fare, the need to rededicate ourselves to the cause of environmental protection was brought again to the centre stage of national issues and planning related to wild life and forest wealth.

In his preface to ‘Man Eaters of Kumaon’ he makes certain thought provoking observations which make an interesting reading.  In his opinion those who coined the expressions ‘as cruel as a tiger’ and ‘as blood-thirsty as a tiger’ to describe a cruel person only betrayed their utter ignorance of the animal. For, a tiger takes to human flesh only under compelling circumstances i.e., when it is wounded, mostly by hunters or when enfeebled by old age.  It is ironical that man, on the other hand, kills tigers for his sadistic pleasure and greed of possessing its skin and other parts for their commercial value boasting of it as an act of valour!

Corbett asserts that tigers do no harm to humans unless provoked.  With such an understanding imbued, even as a boy he wandered in the jungle without fear. He tells us how he encountered tigers, standing still when they stared at him for a few moments and went their way without looking .  His long experience of the wild confirmed his convictions as he grew up.

Even a casual reading of his books reveals the humanistic values of the man.  His book ‘My India’ suggests his deep involvement with the people of this country though he was born of the ruling British parentage.  Dedicating the book to his friends, ‘the poor of India’, he states that he lived among India’s starving millions and loved them whose story he intends to tell in the pages to follow.

His service in the Indian railways brought him in close contact with different sections of the Indian society.  The study of human beings being one of his hobbies, he developed a personal intimacy with each of them, whether on the plains or on the hills.  His kind and sympathetic attitude to them established a perfect rapport between them and he shared the joys and sorrows of the commoners.

He witnessed the worst famines that hit the region when whole villages lived on the bark of trees, on minute grass seeds and the like.  In spite of their poverty, the hill men were very hospitable to him.  In ‘My India’ he gives the life-like sketches of Kunwar Singh, Mothi and Chamari.  He vividly narrates how he gave a new lease of life to Lalajee who was on the verge of death and how he freed Budha from bonded labour.  Finally, time and again he risked his life to rid the people of the region of the perils of man-eaters.

His love of nature comes to the fore in ‘Temple Tiger’ where he gives us a beautiful description of the scenario in the forests of the Himalayas, of the valley over-flowing with the profound sweet notes of birds and the changing sceneries of the fleeting seasons, all presented in his flowing style of poetic beauty.  He knew every plant and every creeper by name and their colour and smell were familiar to him.  His unflagging interest in man, nature, wild life and his philosophy of life are truly reflected in everyone of his books.

Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ is based on pure imagination though his varied pictures of India are true to life.  It suffers from his subjective perceptions of a superior attitude of the ruling clan.  Whereas, here is Corbett who breathes life into his accounts of Indian life with a biographical touch that is surrounded with an aura of the philosophy of the land.

In his observation of the ethics of hunting one can hardly find a parallel to Jim Corbett.  We have come a long way since Corbett died.  Indiscriminate killing of animals has gone so far that people all over the world express great concern for the preservation of wild life.  Man is compelled to have second thoughts over maintaining ecological balance between human beings and their natural surroundings.

We have come to a stage when many species of life, including tigers, are threatened with extinction, Corbett has a message to give to the world.  His life and works are evergreen with their human touch that is as relevant to-day is it was during his day.