Thread by @IndianHistory_C

Today is the 145th birth anniversary of Edward James Corbett, known as Jim Corbett, popular in public memory as a hunter of man-eaters, and writer, but whose legacy has endured because of his concerns for conservation and the environment as much as his tales of adventure.

Many of Corbett's books are available online:

amazon.in/Books-JIM-CORB…

But we recommend for you to read, today, this essay by Jesse Oak Taylor:

*Environmentalism and Imperial Manhood in Jim Corbett's 'The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag'*

jstor.org/stable/4403039…

You may agree or disagree with points @abnaturalist makes here, in a mix of literary and historical analysis (tied up with present day context), but the series of observations he makes, and the questions he raises, definitely provide fodder for thought. On the essay's focus:

Taylor's critique studies *The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag* in the context of Corbett's life, especially in the 1930s & early 1940s (when he was active getting preservation legislation enacted) & in 1942, when he wrote the epilogue & 'the Raj' in India was coming to an end.

The essay reads in between lines of the book & Corbett's life to discern threads of colonialism, masculinity and conservation and examines how, curiously, these may have existed in tandem with instead of in opposition to one another. Also, its study of word usage is intriguing.

Also interesting is Corbett's juxtaposition of the pleasures of wildlife photography with hunting (excerpt from The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, cited in essay as well); & the likening of modern hunting technology of "traps & poisons" to the World Wars' "machinery of death"

Finally, moving from leopards to tigers, we leave you with this book - Tigers and Tigerwallahs - with writings from conservationists ranging from the old to the contemporary: Corbett, Billy Arjan Singh, Valmik Thapar, Geoffrey C. Ward and Diane Raines Ward amazon.co.uk/Tiger-Tigerwal…