Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, man-eating tigers and leopards ravaged the population of Kumaon, killing villagers in large numbers. For example, the Champawat man-eater had killed over 434 people in six years, and the Panar man-eater over 400. Jim Corbett became a hero for thousands of families in the region when he answered their appeals to end this menace. Born in Nainital and fluent in the local dialects, Corbett trained himself in the local jungles spread across hundreds of square kilometres to become patient beyond endurance, and an excellent shot. He was also an evocative writer on wildlife in India, whose books are still read with delight all over the world, and a conservationist whose legacy is still celebrated. Duff Hart-Davis threads together the biography of this very private, unassuming individual, who held a day job as a clerk in the Indian Railways. Often, through Corbett's own written word, the author highlights his adventures in sequence and in context, bringing the Hero of Kumaon to life once again.
Pranav Kumar is: (a) An advertising executive (b) An aspiring writer (c) An anarchist (d) A fugitive from the Mumbai Police (e) All of the above Pranav Kumar has had enough. He’s sick and tired of being a corporate drone convincing people that their lives are meaningless without the newest product he’s peddling. He hates that commercialism is the new mantra and people actually believe that you are what you own. Pranav Kumar wants to change the world. But how does one man make a whole country question the way we are when no one is interested in listening? Pranav and his friends decide to capture the eyeballs of the nation and shake up the system. Their methods are unorthodox; their message unique. They take over a TV station; expose an environmental scam; strike out at patrons of brothels; sabotage a glitzy fashion show; and paint-bomb a local train. But as the Anarchists of Mumbai ignite sparks of a much larger movement; they realize that doing good comes at a price; that the means are as important as the ends and that being hunted by the Mumbai police is perhaps better than being hunted by contract-killers. Bold; fresh and darkly comic; The Diary of an Unreasonable Man is an exceptional debut.
Jim Corbett (1875-1955) was born in Naini Tal and spent most of his life in the hills of Kumaon. He is considered a hero for keeping the forested area intact and tracking and killing maneating leopards. Jim Corbett of Kumaon, the first extended biography of the great man, was originally published in 1979 and remains an important and pioneering sourcebook. It evokes Corbett's life and world with unrivalled knowledge and authenticity, perhaps because the author too belonged to the mountains of Kumaon and Garhwal so loved by Corbett. Jim Corbett of Kumaon has been a great favourite of Corbett fans for many years. This revised edition will be widely welcomed by a new generation of readers.
'Man-Eaters of Kumaon' is the best known of Corbett's books, one which offers ten fascinating and spine-tingling tales of pursuing and shooting tigers in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of this 19th Century. The stories also offer first-hand information about the exotic flora, fauna, and village life in this obscure and treacherous region of India, making it as interesting a travelogue as it is a compelling look at a bygone era of hunting. No one understood the ways of the Indian jungle better than Corbett. A skilled tracker, he preferred to hunt alone and on foot, sometimes accompanied by his small dog Robin. Corbett derived intense happiness from observing wildlife and he was a fervent conservationist as well as a tracker. He empathised with the impoverished people amongst whom he lived, in what is today Uttarakhand, and he established India's first tiger sanctuary there. Corbett's writing is as immediate and accessible today as it was when first published in 1944.
Jim Corbett became the hero of thousands of impoverished local families in the remote Indian region of Kumaon when, throughout the 1920s and 30s, he answered their pleas to rid them of the man-eating tigers and leopards which were ravaging their populations. Man-eaters roamed a region of hundreds of square miles over several years, killing the defenceless villagers at will: for example the Champawat man-eater had killed over 434 people in six years, the Panar maneater over 400. Jim, one of 15 children, was born in 1875 to the local post-master in Nainital, and taught himself as a barefoot boy in his local jungle to become, in his spare time one, of the most skilled trackers of his day, fluent in the local dialects, patient beyond endurance and an excellent shot. Duff Hart Davis' biography threads together the life of this very private, unassuming Indian railway clerk. Often through Jim's own written words, Duff sets out the highlights of Jim's adventures in sequence and in context, thus thowing light on Jim's remarkable character.
The astonishing true story of the man-eating tiger that claimed a record 437 human lives “Thrilling. Fascinating. Exciting.” —Wall Street Journal • "Riveting. Haunting.” —Scientific American Nepal, c. 1900: A lone tigress began stalking humans, moving like a phantom through the lush foothills of the Himalayas. As the death toll reached an astonishing 436 lives, a young local hunter was dispatched to stop the man-eater before it struck again. This is the extraordinary true story of the "Champawat Man-Eater," the deadliest animal in recorded history. One part pulse-pounding thriller, one part soulful natural history of the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, No Beast So Fierce is Dane Huckelbridge’s gripping nonfiction account of the Champawat tiger, which terrified northern India and Nepal from 1900 to 1907, and Jim Corbett, the legendary hunter who pursued it. Huckelbridge’s masterful telling also reveals that the tiger, Corbett, and the forces that brought them together are far more complex and fascinating than a simple man-versus-beast tale. At the turn of the twentieth century as British rule of India tightened and bounties were placed on tiger’s heads, a tigress was shot in the mouth by a poacher. Injured but alive, it turned from its usual hunting habits to easier prey—humans. For the next seven years, this man-made killer terrified locals, growing bolder with every kill. Colonial authorities, desperate for help, finally called upon Jim Corbett, a then-unknown railroad employee of humble origins who had grown up hunting game through the hills of Kumaon. Like a detective on the trail of a serial killer, Corbett tracked the tiger’s movements in the dense, hilly woodlands—meanwhile the animal shadowed Corbett in return. Then, after a heartbreaking new kill of a young woman whom he was unable to protect, Corbett followed the gruesome blood trail deep into the forest where hunter and tiger would meet at last. Drawing upon on-the-ground research in the Indian Himalayan region where he retraced Corbett’s footsteps, Huckelbridge brings to life one of the great adventure stories of the twentieth century. And yet Huckelbridge brings a deeper, more complex story into focus, placing the episode into its full context for the first time: that of colonialism’s disturbing impact on the ancient balance between man and tiger; and that of Corbett’s own evolution from a celebrated hunter to a principled conservationist who in time would earn fame for his devotion to saving the Bengal tiger and its habitat. Today the Corbett Tiger Reserve preserves 1,200 km of wilderness; within its borders is Jim Corbett National Park, India’s oldest and most prestigious national park and a vital haven for the very animals Corbett once hunted. An unforgettable tale, magnificently told, No Beast So Fierce is an epic of beauty, terror, survival, and redemption for the ages.
An exciting narrative of a leopard that spread terror through five hundred square miles of the hills of the United Provinces, The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag also takes a detailed look at life in the Garhwal region of India. Apart from Corbett's hair-raising pursuit of the leopard for almost a year, the book talks about the superstitions prevalent in the region, the beauty of the landscape, what turns a leopard into a man-eater and many other, often surprising facts and anecdotes, all told in Corbett's inimitable style. A worthwhile read for all ages, The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag is also an ode to the people who inhabit the hills, and the resilience with which they face the hardships that assail them.
This is the last of Jim Corbett's books on his unique and thrilling hunting experiences in the Indian Himalayas. Concluding the narrative begun in the famous Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Corbett writes with an acute awareness of all jungle sights and sounds, his words charged with a great love for human beings that lay within his hunting terrain. These qualities are what make these stories vintage Corbett.
This Biography Is Written With A Deep Sense Of Empathy With Jim Corbett And His Life In The Hills. It Is Evocative And Perceptive, With Delightful Insights Into The Legend That Was Corbett.
