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August 19, 2009

Jim Corbett National Park: Unlimited Adventure & Thrill


Jim Corbett National Park
The roar of tigers is a fascinating element for almost all the wildlife lovers. Wildlife is one such factors that maintains an impressive collection of memories through years. The thrill, rarest of fauna, amazing creatures, colourful avifauna species and the best of divine nature – all the elements are simply incomparable. It was chilly cold in the first week of January in Delhi. I did my research on all the nearby wildlife destinations, and planned for a short weekend vacation to the Jim Corbett National Park. It was 0500 hrs of that foggy Saturday morning when I reached Ramnagar by train (240 km). I hired a taxi to Jim Corbett, and in next 20 minutes, I was at a cozy forest rent house situated amidst dense greens.

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.