2014-20 Jim Corbett: Animals at their Best - "Law of the Jungle"
Jim Corbett [1875–1955], born near the foothills of the Himalayas, was a British hunter and naturalist, famous for slaying man-eating tigers and leopards in India. As his admiration for leopards and tigers grew, he made a firm decision never to shoot them unless they posed a threat to cattle or turned man-eater.
True life story of 2 children -- Lost and Found in the Jungle after 77 Hours!
Friday was fair day in Kaladhungi and on that day everyone in the
surrounding villages made it a point to visit the bazaar, where open booths
were erected for the display of cheap food, fruit, and vegetables. On these
fair days Harkwar and Kunthi returned from work half an hour before
their usual time, for if any vegetables had been left over it was possible to
buy them at a reduced price before the booths closed down for the night.
Presently
he noticed that as each buffalo got to a certain spot in the track it turned
its head to the right and stopped, until urged on by the horns of the animal
following. When he got to this spot he also turned his head to the right, and
in a little depression a few feet from the track saw two small children lying. Here then were the missing children for whom a reward of
fifty rupees had been offered.
I once saw a tigress stalking a month-old kid. The ground was very open and the kid saw the tigress while she was still some distance away and started bleating, where on the tigress gave up her stalk and walked straight up to it. When the tigress had approached to within a few yards, the kid went forward to meet her, and on reaching the tigress stretched out its neck and put up its head to smell her. For the duration of a few heart beats the month-old kid and the Queen of the Forest stood nose to nose, and then the queen turned and walked off in the direction from which she had come.
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Jim Corbett: My India [1952] [The Law of the Jungles pp 81-86] pdf [Click here]
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Jim Corbett: Tree Tops [1955] [Jim Corbett's Last Book] pdf [Click here]
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"Few sportsmen have had as profound an effect on the collective psyche of a nation as Jim Corbett has had on that of the people of India. Edward James Corbett was born in 1875 and raised in the Kumaon region of what is now Uttaranchal in India. While most people associate Corbett's name with tigers and the National Park that was named after him posthumously, relatively few are aware of interesting and enchanting life that he lead. Corbett's life was characterized by a simplicity and generosity of a different age. His humble upbringing and proximity to nature instilled in him qualities that endeared him to all who came into contact with him. People of Kumaon revered him as a Saadhu."
Jim Corbett [1875–1955], born near the foothills of the Himalayas, was a British hunter and naturalist, famous for slaying man-eating tigers and leopards in India. As his admiration for leopards and tigers grew, he made a firm decision never to shoot them unless they posed a threat to cattle or turned man-eater.
Since the childhood Jim was fascinated by the wildlife in the
forests around his home, and over time became a good hunter. Corbett was a
colonel in the British Indian Army and worked for the North Western Railway. He
was frequently called on by the government of the Indian state of Uttarakhand
to slay man-eating leopards and tigers who had killed people in the Kumaon
region.
Corbett succeeded in many cases where numerous other hunters had
failed. In twenty years period, Corbett shot many man-eaters such as the
Leopard of Rudraprayag, the Champawat Tiger, and the Panar Leopard, animals
that had killed over a thousand men, women and children. His success earned him
much fame and respect among the villagers of Kumaon, many considered him a
saint.
Corbett was an avid photographer and after his retirement authored Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore, My India and other books recounting his hunts and experiences, which enjoyed critical acclaim and success. Jim Corbett spoke out for the protection of India's nature
and wildlife. He was a pioneer conservationist and stimulated awareness of the
beauty surrounding people and the need to conserve it. India's first National Park in Kumaon is named in his honor.
True life story of 2 children -- Lost and Found in the Jungle after 77 Hours!
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| Kumaon Forests |
When Harkwar and Kunthi returned to the hut
after making their modest purchases,
Punwa and Putali were not at the hut to welcome them. On making inquiries from
the crippled woman at the communal hut, they learned that she had not seen the
children since midday. Harkwar set off to search the
bazaar while Kunthi returned to the hut to prepare the evening meal. An hour later Harkwar returned with several
men who had assisted him in his search to report that no trace of the children
could be found, and that of all the people he had questioned, none admitted having
seen them.
At the lower end of the village there was a police station in charge
of a head constable and two constables. To this police station Harkwar and
Kunthi repaired, with a growing crowd of
well-wishers. The head constable was a
kindly old man who had children of his own, and after lie had listened sympathetically to the distracted parents'
story, and recorded their statements in his diary, he said that nothing could
be done that night, but that next morning he would send the town crier round to
all the fifteen villages in Kaladhungi to announce the loss of the children.
He then suggested
that if the town crier could announce a reward of fifty rupees, it would
greatly assist in the safe return of the children. Fifty rupees! Harkwar and
Kunthi were aghast at the suggestion, for they did not know there was so much
money in all the world. However when the town crier set out on his round the
following morning, he was able to announce the reward, for a man in Kaladhungi who
had heard of the head constable's suggestion had offered the money.
At day break on Saturday morning they went to the police station to
tell the head constable of their decision, and were instructed to lodge a
report at the Haldwani and Ramnagar police stations. They were greatly
heartened when the head constable told them that he was sending a letter by
mail runner to no less a person than the Inspector of Police at Haldwani,
requesting him to telegraph to all railway junctions to keep a look-out for the
children, a description of whom he was sending with his letter.
Near sunset that
evening Kunthi returned from her twenty-eight-mile walk to Haldwani and went
straight to the police station to inquire about her children and to tell the
head constable that, though her quest had been fruitless, she had lodged a
report as instructed at the Haldwani police station.
Shortly afterwards
Harkwar returned from his thirty-six-mile walk to Ramnagar, and he too went
straight to the police station to make inquiries and to report that he had
found no trace of the children, but had carried out the head constable's
instructions. Many friends, including a number of mothers who feared for the
safety of their own children, were waiting at the hut to express their sympathy
for Harkwar and for Punwa's mother.
Sunday was a
repetition of Saturday, with the difference that instead of going east and
west, Kunthi went north to Naini Tal while Harkwar went south to Bazpur. The
former covered thirty miles, and the latter thirty-two. Starting early and returning
at nightfall, the distracted parents traversed many miles of rough roads
through dense forests, where people do not usually go except in large parties,
and where Harkwar and Kunthi would not have dreamed of going alone had not anxiety
for their children overcome their fear of dacoits and of wild animals.
On that Sunday
evening, weary and hungry, they returned to their hut from their fruitless
visit to Naini Tal and to Bazpur, to be met by the news that the town crier's
visit to the villages and the police inquiries had failed to find any trace of the
children. Then they lost heart and gave up all hope of ever seeing Punwa and
Putali again. The anger of the gods, the children. Then they lost heart and
gave up all hope of ever seeing Punwa and Putali again. The anger of the gods, man?
Monday
found the pair too dispirited and too tired to leave their hut. There was no
food, and would be none until they resumed work. But of what use was it to work
now, when the children for whom they had ungrudgingly laboured from morn to
night were gone? So, while friends came and went, offering what sympathy they
could, Hark-war sat at the door of the hut staring into a bleak and hopeless
future, while Kunthi, her tears all gone, sat in a corner, hour after hour, rocking
herself to and fro, to and fro.
On that Monday a man of my acquaintance was herding buffaloes in the
jungle in which lived the wild animals and birds I have mentioned. He was a
simple soul who had spent the greater part of his life in the jungles herding
the buffaloes of the headman at Patabpur village. He knew the danger from
tigers, and near sundown he collected the buffaloes and started to drive them
to the village, along a cattle track that ran through the densest part of the
jungle.
But why had they been murdered and brought to this remote spot? The
children were naked, and were clasped in each other's arms. The herdsman descended
into the depression and squatted down on his hunkers to determine, if he could,
how the children had met their death. That the children were dead he was
convinced, yet now as he sat closely scrutinizing them he suddenly saw that
they were breathing; that in fact they were not dead, but sound asleep.
He was a father himself,
and very gently he touched the children and roused them. To touch them was a
crime against his caste, for he was a Brahmin and they were low-caste children,
but what mattered caste in an emergency like this? So, leaving his buffaloes to
find their own way home, he picked up the children, who were too weak to walk,
and set out for the Kaladhungi bazaar with one on each shoulder. The man was not
too strong himself, for like all who live in the foothills he had suffered much
from malaria.
The children were an awkward load and had to be held in position.
Moreover, as all the cattle tracks and game paths in this jungle run from north
to south, and his way lay from east to west, he had to make frequent detours to
avoid impenetrable thickets and deep ravines. But he carried on manfully,
resting every now and then in the course of his six mile walk. Putali was
beyond speech, but Punwa was able to talk a little and all the explanation he could give for their being in
the jungle was that they had been playing
and had got lost.
Harkwar
was sitting at the door of his hut staring into the darkening night, in which
points of light were beginning to appear as a lantern or cooking-fire was lit
here and there, when he saw a small crowd of people appearing from the direction
of the bazaar. At the head of the procession a man was walking, carrying
something on his shoulders. From all sides people were converging on the
procession and he could hear an excited murmur of 'Harkwar's children'.
Harkwar's
children. He could not believe his ears, and yet there appeared to be no
mistake, for the procession was coming straight towards his hut. Kunthi, having
reached the limit of her misery and of her physical endurance, had fallen
asleep curled up in a corner of the hut. Harkwar shook her awake and got her to
the door just as the herdsman carrying Punwa and Putali reached it.
When
the tearful greetings and blessings and thanks for the rescuer and the
congratulations of friends had partly subsided, the question of the reward the
herdsman had earned was mooted. To a poor man fifty rupees was wealth, untold and with it the herdsman could buy three buffaloes or ten cows and be
independent for life. But the rescuer was a better man than the crowd gave him
credit for.
The blessings and thanks that had been showered on his head that night, he said, was reward enough for him, and he stoutly refused to touch one pie of the fifty rupees. Nor would Harkwar or Kunthi accept the reward either as a gift or a loan. They had got back the children they had lost all hope of ever seeing again, and would resume work as their strength returned. In the meantime the milk and sweets and puris that one and another of the assembled people, out of the goodness of their hearts had run to the bazaar to fetch would be amply sufficient to sustain them.
Two-year-old Putali and three-year-old Punwa were lost at midday on Friday, and were found by the herdsman at about 5 p.m. on Monday, a matter of seventy seven hours. I have given a description of the wild life which to my knowledge was in the forest in which the children spent those seventy-seven hours, and it would be unreasonable to assume that none of the animals or birds saw, heard, or smelt the children. And yet, when the herdsman put Putali and Punwa into their parents' arms, there was not a single mark of tooth or claw on them.
The blessings and thanks that had been showered on his head that night, he said, was reward enough for him, and he stoutly refused to touch one pie of the fifty rupees. Nor would Harkwar or Kunthi accept the reward either as a gift or a loan. They had got back the children they had lost all hope of ever seeing again, and would resume work as their strength returned. In the meantime the milk and sweets and puris that one and another of the assembled people, out of the goodness of their hearts had run to the bazaar to fetch would be amply sufficient to sustain them.
Two-year-old Putali and three-year-old Punwa were lost at midday on Friday, and were found by the herdsman at about 5 p.m. on Monday, a matter of seventy seven hours. I have given a description of the wild life which to my knowledge was in the forest in which the children spent those seventy-seven hours, and it would be unreasonable to assume that none of the animals or birds saw, heard, or smelt the children. And yet, when the herdsman put Putali and Punwa into their parents' arms, there was not a single mark of tooth or claw on them.
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The Law of the Jungle and the Queen of the Forest - A True Life Adventure
The Law of the Jungle and the Queen of the Forest - A True Life Adventure
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| The Queen of the Forest |
"the month-old kid and the queen of the Forest stood nose to nose."
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| a month-old kid |
I once saw a tigress stalking a month-old kid. The ground was very open and the kid saw the tigress while she was still some distance away and started bleating, where on the tigress gave up her stalk and walked straight up to it. When the tigress had approached to within a few yards, the kid went forward to meet her, and on reaching the tigress stretched out its neck and put up its head to smell her. For the duration of a few heart beats the month-old kid and the Queen of the Forest stood nose to nose, and then the queen turned and walked off in the direction from which she had come.
When Hitler's war was nearing its end, in one week I read extracts
from speeches of three of the greatest men in the British Empire, condemning
war atrocities, and accusing the enemy of attempting to introduce the 'law of
the jungle' into the dealings of warring man and man.
Had the Creator made the same law for man as He has made for the jungle folk, there would be no wars, for the strong in man would have the same consideration for the weak as is the established law of the jungles.
Had the Creator made the same law for man as He has made for the jungle folk, there would be no wars, for the strong in man would have the same consideration for the weak as is the established law of the jungles.
Jim Corbett: My India [1952] [The Law of the Jungles pp 81-86] pdf [Click here]
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