Jim Corbett National Park |
In winters, the morning safari starts at 0730 hrs, so I had a couple of hours to get freshed. On my breakfast table, I met a Russian tourist named Brook. Despite of being a foreigner, he knew a lot about the place. Brook told me that Jim Corbett not only boasts of being the oldest National Park of India, which was established in 1936, but also being the First Tiger Reserve in India. Quite impressive !! We decided to share the Jeep Safari in the park together.
The driver told us that we had three hours to explore the thrilling dense greens. The Jim Corbett tourism guide says that it is a home to more than 575 Species of Birds, 25 Species of Reptiles, 50 Species of Mammals and 7 Species of Amphibians. I found the park quite rich in vegetation also. From tall sal trees to shisham, khair, bakli, chir, gurail and bamboo trees, the park is blessed with over 110 species of trees and 51 species of shrubs.
Jeep Safari is undoubtedly the best way to feel the intense jungle but unluckily I did not spot any tiger there. The driver told us that animals like chital, sambar, chinkara, pada, muntjac, monkeys, dholes (wild dogs), jackals and ghorals (mountain goats) also inhabit the Park. And I spotted a few of them alongside the Ramganga river. We also saw a huge herd of elephants comprising tuskers, females and calves. As we were trying to capture them in our cameras, the driver told us not to get out of the jeep as this could be the most dangerous encounter in the wild. The reason behind is that elephants are very possessive of their young and do not hesitate to charge at intruding human beings.
I was tempted to go swimming in the Ramganga river as well, but I dropped the idea because of the crocodiles that are always hungry for humans flesh. My short tour to Jim Corbett National Park was actually action packed. All the activities there were a delight for my memories.