Jungle Lore

Rating:
Summary: THE TRUE NATURALISTS BOOK.
Review: It will take you far, far into past, into the very heart of India, the land of jungles, of love, of true simplicity,

Jim Corbett will accompany you into the past with you and lead you into the future, this is a book that reiterates, that nature has no beginning as it has no end..., a revealing insight into one remarkable man, a britisher who was in India to live with its wonderful people and animals and who richly deserves the honour of being remembered even today, in the land he loved, and the place he tread, bears the call, CORBETT NATIONAL PARK.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining narrative with genuine depth
Review: James E. Corbett grew up in an India that was still a colony of Great Britain. This is an autobiographical account of episodes in his life -- by no means complete, but a taste of what it was like to grow up, not in the culture of British India, but in the jungles that surrounded it. He was a self-taught naturalist and tracker, learning to hunt, track, find direction, and survive in the jungles. The stories are mostly entertaining -- except toward the end, where I found myself flipping forward in some distaste because of his description of hunting tigers for sport. But Corbett himself demonstrates a healthy reverence for life, and moreover, a strong appetite for learning about the natural world, and for developing his sensitivity to it.

The book is largely narrative, but mixed in with it is a little bit of his philosophy of jungle law, and some material about what he has learned through his experiences, supplemented, of course, with more stories. This, like other anecdotal evidence, should be taken with a grain of salt and tested against one's own experience. For instance, he writes that venomous snakes, with one exception, are slower and so have to wriggle more in order to move around, and so their tracks will reflect this, while non-venomous snakes are speedy and agile and will have straight rather than wave-form tracks. A friend of mine who's very familiar with snakes disputes this.

But, as Corbett himself says, "Having stated that the book of Nature has no beginning, and no end, I would be the last to claim that I have learned all that is to be learned of any of the subjects dealt with here, or that this book contains any expert knowledge." Undoubtedly, though, through his extensive experience alone, he has learned enough to be a master, in harmony with his jungle.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining narrative with genuine depth
Review: James E. Corbett grew up in an India that was still a colony of Great Britain. This is an autobiographical account of episodes in his life -- by no means complete, but a taste of what it was like to grow up, not in the culture of British India, but in the jungles that surrounded it. He was a self-taught naturalist and tracker, learning to hunt, track, find direction, and survive in the jungles. The stories are mostly entertaining -- except toward the end, where I found myself flipping forward in some distaste because of his description of hunting tigers for sport. But Corbett himself demonstrates a healthy reverence for life, and moreover, a strong appetite for learning about the natural world, and for developing his sensitivity to it.

The book is largely narrative, but mixed in with it is a little bit of his philosophy of jungle law, and some material about what he has learned through his experiences, supplemented, of course, with more stories. This, like other anecdotal evidence, should be taken with a grain of salt and tested against one's own experience. For instance, he writes that venomous snakes, with one exception, are slower and so have to wriggle more in order to move around, and so their tracks will reflect this, while non-venomous snakes are speedy and agile and will have straight rather than wave-form tracks. A friend of mine who's very familiar with snakes disputes this.

But, as Corbett himself says, "Having stated that the book of Nature has no beginning, and no end, I would be the last to claim that I have learned all that is to be learned of any of the subjects dealt with here, or that this book contains any expert knowledge." Undoubtedly, though, through his extensive experience alone, he has learned enough to be a master, in harmony with his jungle.

Rating:
Summary: Great nature book about a great naturalist and hunter
Review: This an autobiographical book is about a turn of the century British Citizen growing up in India, who becomes fascinated about the Jungle and the inhabitants that live there at a very early age. He is mostly self taught by observing nature around him. He is also a great tracker and develops his awareness to a extraordiary level. He is motivated to increase his awareness and tracking abilities by his respect for the Leopard, Tigers and Cobras that fill his jungle.

Rating:
Summary: Great nature book about a great naturalist and hunter
Review: This an autobiographical book is about a turn of the centuryBritish Citizen growing up in India, who becomes fascinatedabout the Jungle and the inhabitants that live there at a very early age. He is mostly self taught by observing nature around him. He is also a great tracker and develops his awareness to a extraordiary level. He is motivated to increase his awareness and tracking abilities by his respect for the Leopard, Tigers and Cobras that fill his jungle.

Rating:
Summary: Too much wanton killing for sport
Review: This is a wonderfully written book on how to kill a whole bunch of animals now on the endangered species list. Jim Corbett needs no introduction of course, and 'Jungle Lore' is as beautifully written as any of Corbett's books. But there are some contradictions in Corbett's books that I find hard to understand, and Jungle Lore is no exception. In fact, whole chapters of the book are devoted to pure sport hunting in the style of his bloodthirsty contemporaries.

In Jungle Lore, we are told how Corbett killed "the biggest leopard in India" - because it was "worth shooting". No justification is given or deemed necessary!

We are also given a detailed description of a "beat" carried out to please the Viceroy of India. We learn that the hunt went so beautifully that each member of the Viceroy's party "bagged" a tiger.

Among other stories, there is one of a tiger - not a man-eater or even a cattle killer - which had been outwitting its would-be killers (a local maharajah and his minions) for years, and which was finally hunted down owing to Corbett's tracking skills.

The last couple of stories are particularly distasteful as they show, in microcosm, the demise of Indian wildlife at the hands of the British and Indian aristocracy. Though Corbett calls the tiger a 'gentleman', he does serious damage to his credibility by not recording his opposition to wanton sport-killing. Indeed, he organizes beats for the aristocracy, and frequently shoots tigers and leopards either for sport or for trivial reasons. The common assertion that Corbett ever gave up sport hunting for the camera is surprising, since Jungle Lore clearly states that he shot his last tiger after the Second World War (when he was past 70).

As a conservationist, it thus seems that Corbett is not in the same league as his great contemporary, F.W. Champion, whose books 'With a Camera in Tiger-Land' and 'The Jungle in Sunlight and Shadow' inspired a generation of people to give up the gun for the camera. Champion recorded his objection to the hunting of wildlife for sport unequivocally in his books. Moreover, he actually practiced what he preached by completely ceasing to shoot after the mid 1920s, an age when tigers - and huge trophy tigers at that! - were still abundant. Contrast this with Corbett, who shot the magnificent Bachelor of Powalgarh for sport (as described in gory detail in 'The Man-Eaters of Kumaon') in 1930. It is tragic that Fred Champion - whose pioneering efforts produced the first ever photographs of wild tigers, leopards and a host of other wildlife - is hardly known.

In the midst of the descriptions of the thrills of hunting, Jungle Lore does contain material, written in Corbett's inimitable style, that describes the rich wildlife of India in a forgotten era. Classic descriptions of the battle between a pair of mating tigers and a big tusker elephant, of the method employed by otters to kill pythons, and of a battle between a crested eagle and a fishing cat are highlights of the book. So also are the descriptions of the methods of tracking wild animals, though it is frequently to put a bullet through them. Given the historical importance of the book, and also its price, it is certainly worth buying if you are interested in Indian wildlife.