Jim Corbett is known to the common man as a famous hunter who tracked and shot man-eating tigers and leopards in the Indian Himalaya. His books like ’Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ , which have already gained immense popularity among readers of all ages and also have been translated into different languages, show his prowess as a hunter of big game. However, after reading ’Jungle Lore’ one is inclined to think whether Corbett was more of a naturalist than a mere hunter.
This book is all about the author’s love-affair with Kumaon Hills, the jungle, the people and a myriad of animals and birds that inhabit the forests around Kaladhungi which was Corbett’s home in India, tucked away against the first of the Himalayan foothills rising from the plains. The jungle with all its sights and sounds was an irresistible call for young Corbett. From the day he found out the mystery of the call of banshee which , according to his relative Dansay, was an ominous evil female spirit, Corbett had this avid desire to get to the bottom of everything unusual he saw or heard in the jungle. He never let his yearning for knowledge and truth to be suppressed by fear or any other emotion. In this way, Corbett learnt to interpret the jungle signs, mimic and interpret the call of some of the birds and animals which ultimately made him the master tracker he was. Yet he claimed that he was always a student in the classroom of Nature from his very first day in the jungle to the last. He never ceased to be a learner, for he believed that jungle lore was not something that could be learnt in a given time-period from the pages of a text book. It has to be absorbed little by little and this absorption process goes on because Nature is continuous and always in a flux. So there’s always more and more to learn from Nature and one can do so, provided one has the desire and interest.
’Jungle Lore’ is the closest Corbett ever came to an autobiography. It is here that he describes how as a child, he roamed about in the jungle with a catapult in search of birds and butterflies and his journey from a shaky start with the first muzzle-loader to the superb marksman he ultimately grew up to be . As young Corbett went about looking for meat game with his hunting-dog Magog, he had various exciting encounters with tigers, leopards and other big game. It was in such a chance encounter that Corbett shot his first leopard. From his experiences he gained valuable knowledge about the ways of the jungle and its fauna and this knowledge perhaps was one of the finest safeguards against the dangerous man-eaters he went after later in his career. He also enjoyed playing a jungle detective, uncovering the events behind every trail or drag mark he found in the jungle. As he writes, he always gives a liberal description of nature, how her colors change from season to season. According to Corbett, animals in the jungle do occasionally fight for sport rather than for food, and he corroborates this with some fascinating examples, the most absorbing one being the epic fight between an elephant and two tigers near Tanakpur, which became an all-time animal legend. There has been some doubt whether animals do actually fight for sport or get involved in accidental inter-species fight and perhaps it’s relevant to quote here that a National Geographic documentary showed lions in the African bush killing hyenas for sport.
Corbett had often made arrangements and organized beats for shikar by royal families. He describes at least two of the bandobasts he made, one for the Maharaja of Jind and the other for the family of the then Viceroy of India. The latter one almost resulted in a casualty, for beats, though a common way of bagging a tiger, are dangerous and slightest lack of judgement may prove fatal in a beat as Corbett illustrates. Nevertheless that was the one and only occasion when he perhaps endangered the lives of the members of the royal family and he never had any further concern about their safety in the many future arrangements he made for their shikar.
Besides using all his five senses to the fullest to enjoy the charm of the jungles and at the same time unravel any hidden danger, Corbett also speaks of a sixth sense which he calls Jungle Sensitiveness and which he attributes to his close association with the jungle for years. It was this sense that had prevented him from coming in direct contact with a wild animal and possibly getting mauled on several occasions. Perhaps very few people knew more about Nature than Corbett and yet he claimed that he was still a learner and had got much more to learn. His respect for Nature was deep and profound and later on in his life, he preferred to shoot game with the camera rather than rifle. He was one of the first to realize that the jungle with its flora and fauna is an aesthetic element which needs to be preserved in its own natural wild form. At the heart of ’Jungle Lore’ echoes a deep cry for the loss of man’s respect for Nature. Much of the forests where Corbett once roamed has been destroyed. The jungles where he abound are no longer teeming with game and the majestic tigers and the graceful leopards have only become a shadow of their past existence. ’Jungle Lore’ is perhaps one of the best attempts by the author to reunite man with Nature.