Situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, lies the mystical Jim Corbett National Park, embroiled in tales of the Royal Bengal Tiger. Established in the year 1936 as Hailey National Park, Corbett has the glory of being India’s oldest National Park.
Jim Corbett National Park – India’s oldest National Park
Spanning over 520 square kilometers, it has a variety of landscapes including hills, marshlands, grasslands, and water bodies. Although the park is vast, its headquarters Ramnagar is in Nainital district, Uttarakhand.
History of the Jim Corbett National Park
Prior to its establishment, the park was private property in the Tehri Garhwal princely state. The Raja of Tehri handed over a part of the region to the East India Company in exchange for their assistance against the Gurkhas. Boksas a tribe from the Terai who settled in this area and practiced agriculture were ousted by the British in 1860. The process of park preservation began in 1868. The existing terrain and the wildlife were so unique that the plan to create the wildlife reserve was drawn in 1907. However, it was only in 1930, that the park went through the process of demarcation under the guidance of Jim Corbett. A reserve area known as Hailey National Park covering 323.75 square km was created in 1936 when Sir Malcolm Hailey was the Governor of the United Provinces.
The reserve was renamed in 1954–55 to Ramganga National Park. After the death of Jim Corbett, to keep his memory alive the name of the park was changed again to the Jim Corbett National Park in 1955–56. Over time, the area of the reserve kept on expanding and increased to 797.72 square km in 1991 with a buffer zone. This makes it one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in India. In 1974 the wildlife conservation project, Project Tiger was launched here by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Do read: Bhimtal, Sattal, Naukuchiatal – Mystical Lakes of Kumaon
Jim Corbett
Edward James Corbett, a.k.a Jim Corbett was born in 1857 in Nainital, Uttarakhand. He was of British ancestry and was the 8th child in a large family of 16. Although he wanted to study further, he joined the railway as a fuel inspector to support his family. During his life, Corbett tracked and shot several man-eating leopards and tigers. The first man-eater was the Champawat Tiger…
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