Jim Corbett is a British hunter, conservationist, and amazing writer who has authored a number of books about his time in colonial India.
His tales of hunting the man-eaters in the Himalayas are not only about the tigers or the leopards or about the game tracks he walked while hunting them and other animals in great Himalayan jungles but are a reigning tribute to the hill folk who embraced life for the hardships they endured on a daily basis during colonial India. To an extent, life is extremely difficult to this day in the remotest regions of these mighty ranges.
Apart from nerve-wracking accounts of his hunts, his books allow you a subtle glimpse into the daily lives of the humble hill-folk who then had no access to proper medical care, proper shelter to protect themselves against the harsh conditions at high altitudes, leave alone the man-eating cats.
The stories are of exceptional courage and grit in a time of grief, hope against a hopeless fate, and inspiring lessons about humanity.
What does the courage of a 16-year-old lad tell you who offered to help Corbett to locate the latest human kill by this tiger when the kill was the boy's own mother?
What do you have to say about a young mother who went to go find her 14-year-old son who hasn't returned home since the morning after he left to graze the cattle on the hills nearby? All by herself, in the darkness of a Himalayan jungle, in the heart of the man-eater's territory where the village folk would not dare to venture out beyond a mile from their houses during the day.
Books by Corbett are laden with stories exclusively of hunting big cats which began to prey on humans in the Himalayan forests. Corbett possesses a unique flair and exceptional writing finesse to bring life to his narration.
For I'm still hallucinating about lurking in the jungles along with Corbett and also being wary of not giving out the spoilers, I cannot reveal much about the books.
Should you need to go on hunting a man-eater in the Himalayas, pick up a book by Jim Corbett right away.
Omnibus Volumes of Corbett’s Books
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