Hero of Kumaon

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.