Man has been consistently destroying the natural environment for the sake of development to get the comforts in his life since the process of evolution started. His act to put the environment in the margin has created devastating impact on the lives of flora and fauna. As a result, some priceless species of the earth has become endangered in the IUCN Red Data List; founded in 1964 for the documentation of those rare species of animals and plants which are in the verge of extinction in around the world. This great loss of environment is affecting the biodiversity of the earth. Also, the dramatic changes in the weather, and recurring natural calamities are the some of the consequences in this regard that are creating difficulties for the survival of human beings. Therefore, the environmental conservation has become a prominent aspect of the study in the modern scenario that not only limits its scope for sciences and technologies but extends its area in other subjects also. The spirit of environmental conservation has been introduced in the literature with the term ‘Ecocriticism’ which was coined by William Rueckert in 1978 in his notable essay Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism, and is now a separate branch of literature for students as well as scholars to explore the relation of human with physical environment in order to sustain the environment and its biodiversity.
Edward James Corbett (25 July 1875 — 19 April 1955), popularly known as Jim Corbett, is considered one of those early writers in the stream of literature who had not only predicted the repercussion of environment ruination but raised their voices for its conservation. Also, he is in the list of those very few Englishmen in the history of India who have received appreciation and acknowledgement from Indians after the independence of India from British rule due to their saviour, humanistic and empathetic outlook for the natives. He had been keenly observed the hardships and poor states of the subaltern India since his childhood because he had born and brought up in Nainital, the northern Himalayan region of British India, now in the state of republic of India known as Uttarakhand.
Corbett’s Literary Works and Environmental Vision
Corbett was a remarkable sportsman who had received the rudimentary training for arms from the Nainital Volunteer Rifles at the age of ten, and preyed his first leopard in the early age of eleven. His every piece of book is divided into numerous chapters with a specific title, and every chapter not only gives the fascinating detail account of hunting but also elaborates the topography, geography, jungles, wild life, natural scenic beauty, hamlets and human inhabitants of that particular area where he chased and preyed the man-eaters. His first book, in the series of man-eaters, entitled Man-Eaters of Kumaon published in 1944 which has been translated into fourteen European, eleven Indian, Africans and Japanese languages. The third book My India (1952) is a collection of twelve tales about the picturesque description of the routine life of obscure common Indians and their exquisite qualities. Jungle Lore (1953), the forth book of Corbett, is in the form of autobiography that not only exhibits his conservationist sensibility for environment and ecology but depicts his love for people, jungles as well as animals of the hilly region of Himalaya. The sixth and last book Tree Tops (1955) is based on Corbett’s final days living in Kenya after expatriating India in 1947.
The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag
The main purpose of this paper is to study The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag in the environmental conservation perspective, and explore the aspects of conservations as suggested by Jim Corbett in the book.
Corbett has depicted his experiences of preying notorious man-eating leopard, that was actively involved in human preying between June 9, 1918 to April 14, 1926, and credited, according to government record, one hundred and twenty-five human killings in its account who were either innocent pilgrims or villagers or children during this short period, in the form of twenty five chapters in The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag.
The Pilgrim Road
The first chapter of the book entitled ‘The Pilgrim Road’ depicts a clear and detail topographical accounts of the famous age old Hindu pilgrimage of Kedarnath and Badrinath, situated in Rudraprayag, where the pilgrims reached after treading the distance by “walk every step of the way from Hardwar to Kedarnath and, thence, over the mountain track to Badrinath, barefoot” (1) during the British rule.
Big Game Hunting and Environmental Degradation
The cold-blooded killing of wild animals in their natural abode, known as ‘Big Game Hunting’, has its roots in the history of India where the aristocracy had recognised it as the most adventurous activity. The literary critics and environmentalists consider this game as an ‘Anti Sport’ due to the occurrence of thousands of innocent wild animals’ heartless butchering in a day without giving them chance to save their lives.
Jim Corbett is one of the legends in big game hunting of British India. He had killed twelve man-eating tigers and leopards in his career, though the purpose was neither to get adventurous pleasure of chasing and hunting nor to show his English supremacy over the poor and innocent Indians through crediting these killings in his account but to eliminate the life threatens of man-eaters, which were responsible for several humans’ death in order to save the people of Garhwal and Kumaon in the Himalayan region of India.
Corbett as Conservationist
Jim Corbett is not merely considered as a messianic hunter of man-eating big cats in the Himalayan region of Kumaon and Garhwal but also recognised as an early voice that was raised for environmental conservation, and protested the sinful as well as vicious illegal killing of wild lives without looking for any alternatives. He was immensely worried for dwindling population of wild animals especially tiger, “a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage,” from Indian Jungles.
Jim Corbett condemns completely this unethical and sinful massacre of wild lives, and suggests the alternate option of wild life shootings that every sportsmen should shoot the leopard with camera instead of any rifle because “far more pleasure is got from pressing the button of a camera than is ever got from pressing the trigger of a rifle.”
Campaign for Conservation
Corbett had been started a campaign against the deforestation and brutal carnage of wild life since 1930, and in this regard he had visited many schools to aware the children about the importance of natural heritage, and the need to protect jungles in order to conserve the wildlife. His visionary approach for the conservation of environment exhibits from his essay entitled ‘Wild Life in a Village: An Appeal’ in the Review of the Week from Naini Tal published in 1932.
Beauty of Nature in Garhwal
Corbett has described the beauty of nature of Garhwal’s region in the several chapters of the book which he had experienced during investigation of the sights and scenes of the leopard’s killings. He portrays, as an ardent believer of nature, the beauty of great Himalaya with the setting sun that mesmerises him effectively during his all night vigil for the leopard.
Conclusion
The detailed study of Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag makes it clear that the book is not only an account of Corbett’s thrilling and adventurous experience about to locate and shoot the notorious man-eating leopard but it also exposes his environmental conservationist outlook. He seems, in the several scenes of the book, to make an appeal to readers for protecting jungles against the deforestation in order to conserve the wildlife that depicts his love for nature and its creatures.
Works Cited
- Corbett, Jim. (1944) Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1959
- ---. (1947) The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015
- ---. ‘Wild Life in Village: An Appeal’, Review of the Week, in Martin Booth, Carpet Sahib: A Life of Jim Corbett. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986
- Gupta, ReetaDutta. Jim Corbett: Hunter-Conservationist. New Delhi: Rupa and Company, 2006
- Hay, Douglas. Peter, Linebaugh. John, Rule. Thompson, E.P., and Winslow, Cal. Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England. London: Allen Lane, 1975
- Jaleel, Jerry A. (1997). Under the Shadow of Man-Eaters: The Life and Legend of Jim Corbett. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2001
- Kala, D.C. Jim Corbett of Kumaon. New Delhi: Ravi Dayal Publishers, 1979