Edward James Corbett (July 25, 1875 – April 19, 1955) was an Indian writer and philosopher of Irish origin. He fought for human rights and also started the movement of protected forests. He had built a house at Kaladhungi near Nainital. Humanity remembers the favorite ‘son of nature’ – Edward James Corbett (Jim Corbett). The stories of his hunting skills still add to the inquisitiveness of wildlife activists. Only a few know that Edward Jim Corbett, the famous hunter turned conservationist, was also a man of letters.
Edward James Jim Corbett was born on July 25, 1875, in Nainital. Then Nainital was a hill district of the United Provinces, which was under British rule. His father’s name was Christopher William Corbett, and his mother was Mary Jane Corbett. Mary Jane was William’s second wife, and William was Mary’s second husband. Mary had three children from her first husband. Jim Corbett had a total of twelve siblings.
Jim did his early education from the Opening School in Nainital, later enrolled in St. Joseph’s College, but due to poor financial condition, leaving his studies in the middle, at the age of 18, he went to MokamaGhat (Bihar) and started working in the railway there. Jim’s father died on April 21, 1881, at the age of 58, leaving the household to low income, and Mary Jane decided to take up business to supplement the household’s income. She decided to establish and run a rental accommodation in Nainital. Mary Jane also died in 1927 at the age of 90. Both Jim’s parents were buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Church in Sukhatal near Nainital.
After the death of his mother, Jim Corbett took forward the work of the rental agency in Nainital for some time. Jim Corbett remained unmarried and spent most of his life with elder sister Corbett Maggie, living among the local villagers of Kaladhungi and Nainital. In this way, he became very attached to the forests and animals here. Along with this, his sister Maggie also became very fond of birds. Jim Corbett was a good hunter, environmentalist, great writer as well as an extraordinarily kind person.
There were a large number of tigers in the forests of Nainital and Kaladhungi in those days, of which many were man-eaters. Whenever Jim used to stay away from Nainital and Kaladhungi, the memory of the villagers used to haunt him. Whenever a calamity or cannibal tiger terror struck the villagers, his beloved would inform Jim Corbett by telegram. He used to reach immediately after taking leave. Meanwhile, he also hunted three man-eaters. Jim Corbett has written in this context in his book ‘My India.’ Thus Jim Corbett became popular for killing man-eaters.