Jim Corbett National Park

Jim Corbett National Park is the oldest national park to be founded in the entire country and in fact the continent, and was established in 1936 to protect the Bengal Tiger, endangered already at the time, originally under the name Hailey National Park. Located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand, Jim Corbett has the typical characteristics found in the sub-Himalayan belt. With an abundant and thriving plant and wildlife ecosystem that is well preserved, its popularity among tourists and enthusiasts alike is not surprising. The first efforts to preserve the forest area were, remarkably, observed as early as the 19th century, when in 1868 under the guidance of Major Ramsay the British Government established forest department control over the land, making considerable efforts to minimize pollution of the land. In 1879, a Reserve Forest was demarcated with limited felling permitted. The first decade of the 20th century saw some speculation about the creation of a game reserve in this area, but it was not until the 1930s that the first efforts at demarcation of the land for such an operation got underway. Several laws were passed in the years after 1936 to prohibit any hunting or capturing of any mammals, birds, or reptiles from the reserve. Unfortunately, the Second World War dealt a serious blow to the flourishing natural life existing in these lands, and the period saw widespread poaching and felling of timber, leaving the land rather deprived of its own resources by the end of the War. The reserve was renamed soon after in 1955 as the Ramganga National Park, and again in 1956, as the Jim Corbett National Park, after the prominent British official who played a key role in the establishment of the reserve. In 1974, it was chosen as the launch site for the ambitious Project Tiger, dedicated to the task of wildlife conservation and the fight against poaching, which has achieved some commendable results since. In 1991, the total are under the protection of the reserve was increased substantially, by a total of approximately 308 square miles.