The
Corbett National park wasn't just the home of tigers, it was the home of
man-eaters. In this enormous patch of wilderness were the great man-eaters of
India's past who were brought down by white-hunter turned conservationist Jim
Corbett. Now tourists shoot with cameras rather then rifles and there are still
tigers and panthers (leopards) in the vast park which stretches for 500 miles
with the Himalayas as a spectacular backdrop.
The terrain
encloses plains, rivers, jungle, lakes and vast acres of sal forest inhabited
by the creatures of India. You may get to see tigers (although rare due to
poaching), panthers, wild elephants, chital, pythons, wild boar, jackals,
fish-eagles and a unique crocodile called a muggar. If you are travelling
through northern Uttar Pradesh you would be mad not to stop in Corbett National
Park.
The time of year
is crucial as the park shuts down for the monsoon between June 15 and September
15 and roads in and out of the park become flooded. Every visitor to the Park
has to obtain an entry permit (350 rupees for foreigners) as well as pay for
costs and accommodation in the park. The only place to stay inside the park is
Dhikala which is a fortified camp and getting there is difficult without your
own transport. Once there they do dusk/dawn elephant rides into the park. The
animals are far less peturbed by these pachyderms and you can get very close.
Unfortunately
for us the monsoon came two weeks early and the park was shut for rain. We
stayed around Ramnager for two days hoping for a break in the monsoon and when
one did finally occur we booked a tour with one of the nearby agencies. For 700
rupees we got a jeep ride around the periphery of the park and our driver was a
burly Sikh who would wear a piece of polythene over his turban to keep out the
rain. He took us into the park and into the sal forests on a journey along the
Kosi river. We passed rows and rows of red/brown teak trees and the Sikh driver
was determined to give us a good time pointing out peahens and bulbul''s. But I
was intrigued whether there were tigers or leopards in the forest and asked him
whether he had seen any outside the reserve.
"Oh yes,
many times", for he was a local boy, "one time out jogging a tigress
and four cubs crossed in front of me. It was very early in the morning. Tigers
and panthers regularly leave the forest and kill neighbourhood dogs and goats.
And at harvest time herds of wild elephants cause great destruction in the
paddyfields. They sometimes kill villagers but no retribution is made against
them."
But all we saw
was a jackal who sat by the side of the road looking at us reflectively. And we
could not go too deeply into the park as the roads were flooded so instead he
drove us along the Kosi river to the Krishna temple. Once past the tea-shops
and souvenir stalls there is a viewing platform for an impressive panorama. To
my left were the Himalayan foothills swathed up to their pinnacles in forest and
touched with cloud. The forests themselves rolled down to the wide,rushing Kosi
river. In the middle of the torrent was a fingerlike rock, marooned by the
rushing water around it. The triangular rock stood forty feet in the air and a
set of steps ran up to a tiny temple at its peak. When the river is low
pilgrims wade across to give offerings to their god - but the whole sight was
magnificent .
We may not have
seen any man-eaters in Corbett, but we did get a taste of the Indian
wilderness, and it made us want to come back to India, and definitely come back
to the Corbett NP.
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