New Delhi: Jim Corbett, whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated, was a hero and a savior for the hilly-people of Kumaon and Garhwal in colonial India of 1920 and 1930s. But the hunter-protectist was written at the national level and his first book, ‘Man-Eatrs of Kumaon’, became a global literary star. He was then 69 years old.“It is safe to say that no journalist can write a jungle thriller of more absorbed interest than this classic by Jim Corbett, which is undoubtedly the best thing of its kind because ‘The Times of India Review’ said since ‘The Times of Tasavo’.‘Man-Aatters of Tsavo’ (1907), a story of two terrorists in East Africa, was written by Hunter John Patterson and decades later filmed as ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’ (1996).Further reviews stated that “Jim Corbett does not know what the habits of Tigerland and Tiger … it is not worth knowing …” and said that “the author is giving his royalty to St. Dunston’s hostel for blind Indian soldiers (in the Second World War).”A TOI article in November 1945 states that “Man-Aatters of Kumaon of Kumaon” was also an option for the “Book of the Month” club.Toi described his second book, ‘The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag’, as the “work of suspense”. But it also said that the book was “more” and “deep”. The 1945 review said, “It is inspired by deep human mercy and understanding of this terrible enemy.”Corbett was associated with India after Kenya left. In 1955, he weighed in the controversial ‘Wolf’ boy Ramu, which was published in Toi.The engagement was reciprocal. A few decades after his death, letters were written to the toi editor. In 1960, SA Bashir of Ahmedabad wrote that Corbett’s ‘My India’ should be determined as “matriculation or a fast reader for intermediate students”.In 1975, his birth centenary year, Dr. Dr. as Kothari. Wrote, “No other foreign India loved India so much as this great British … We should name the National Park of Bombay after Jim Corbett and publish cheap books on India’s wildlife to remember them.”
