Jim Corbett National Park

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days for a retreat near the Jim Corbett National Park.

It takes 7 hours of uneven road travel to reach the Park area in the Uttaranchal State. The road from Delhi is part highway, part dusty tracks by the side – lots of dust I should say. Infrastructure cries for redemption all over India, and this area is no exception. Except I expected a better infrastructure around Delhi than in any other part of the country ! With heavy trucks, lorries, buses, cars, vans, tractors, bullock carts, and cycles (apart from the occasional pedestrians trying to cross the road risking their lives), it requires heavy concentration and ability to brake rather very quickly to manoeuvre the highway.

Nevertheless, Jim Corbett is worth a trip. Though it is rare to sight any tigers (I didn’t), or elephants, I managed to see deers and monkeys. I guess one has to spend considerable time within the forest area in order to be able to see anything more significant. There are procedures to be complied with while gaining admittance into the park. Like most publicly maintained facilities in India, there is confusion while going in – they ask a lot of questions and delay the entry while checking a series of documents, including driving licenses ! It is never smooth, coordinated, easy entry for tourists who have taken the trouble to come all the way.

However, finally one gets in on a four-wheel drive – the Maruti Gypsy. It’s a rough ride all the way, and people with back problems better be careful. The ride can’t be made smoother, there is no proper road inside – it is a dirt track all the way. The drivers are quite rough and push the vehicles to extreme performance while ensuring a rocky ride to the passengers. But, you tend to ignore all that, in the hope of seeing some wild animals.

Suddenly, the driver stops the vehicle and shuts down the ignition, and cautions all of us to be silent. We look around carefully, holding our breath. Voila, there comes a deer ! We raise the cameras, and it appears frightened. However, we manage to capture some shots……the driver now explains it would be better to go along the river stream to see the elephants, but alas, no such luck.

Here are some photos, some more in the next post :

DSC08394.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Jim Corbett National Park

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Road leading to Jim Corbett National Park

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A poor shot of the deer…….from a moving vehicle

DSC08377.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Gypsies at the parking lot

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A view of the river stream

DSC08406.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

River Stream at Jim Corbett

DSC08390.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A dirt track in Jim Corbett – one can see the big pebbles on both sides of the track

DSC08381.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

Lunch with the Tigers, anyone ?

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Periphery of the Park

DSC08393.JPG, originally uploaded by vjsri99.

A view of the dirt track inside the National Park

Hope you relished the pics, though nothing great. Make the Jim Corbett National Park as one of your “must-see” places.

Some of the relevant links for your further read on Jim Corbett are as follows :

“Corbett Park”

“Jim Corbett (hunter) – Wikipedia”

“Jim Corbett National Park – Spectrum Tours”

Have a great weekend

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
12 April 2008
Mumbai