Back to: Tamil Nadu Class 8 English Guide & Notes
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Introduction
Jim Corbett, A Hunter Turned Naturalist” is a real story based on the famous photographer, hunter, tracker, naturalist, and a writer, Jim Corbett. The central idea of the story is based on the necessity of hunting a Champawat Tigress, who was responsible for nearly 436 deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon region of India. She was so dangerous that her attacks have been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest number of fatalities from a tiger.
Horror of Tigress
The tigress was very intelligent in managing herself to escape from the hunters. She began her attacks in a Rupal village in Western Nepal. The tigress continued her attacks in the Kumaon district as the Nepalese Army failed to capture and kill her. People were so horrified of her roar, that they refused to move out of their huts and go into the forest for the purpose of collecting firewood, fruits, roots and other essential commodities.
The sensitivity of the situation was at its peak and the British Government had to request Jim Corbett to help the villagers. Jim was against the idea of game hunting and deforestation, but he used to hunt the man-eaters.
After several unsuccessful attempts of tracking the tigress, he finally managed to hunt her down, when she killed a 16-year-old girl in the village, near Champawat, and left a trail of blood. Jim Corbett followed the trail of blood, and finally caught the tigress and shot her down by arranging a bait with the help of three hundred villagers.
Real Reason
After killing, a postmortem was done on the tigress, which proved that the tigress was hurt as her upper and lower canine teeth on the right side of her mouth was broken. This injury was due to an old gunshot from a game hunter. Corbett claimed that it was due to this injury, that the tigress began eating flesh of humans as this injury prevented her from hunting her natural prey.
Jim Corbett strongly advocated and raised his voice against the idea of deforestation and game hunting, which were ultimately the main reason behind the mischief of wild animals. He even promoted the “Association in the preservation of Game” and the “All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wildlife”. He died on 19th April 1955.
After his death, the Hailey National Park was renamed as The Jim Corbett National Park. The park is thus, named after him to honour his role in establishing this protected area in 1930s.
