Jungle Lore

by Jim Corbett

Book Overview

Jim Corbett, naturalist, shikari, and conservationist is famous for his tales of hunting in the Indian Jungle. Many years before the issues of conservation became understood, Corbett was obsessed with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195651855
• ISBN13: 9788172242688
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

a lost world

Reading Jim Corbett makes the reader realize how much of the natural world has been lost in just the last century, and what a profound loss it has been. Having spent some time in this part of India, I can recognize some of what he writes about, but so much has been lost. Corbett's committment to saving the lives of all the hill people being killed by man-eaters is something his critics should remember; far from being a wanton killer of animals, he ruined his health spending so many nights out lashed alone to trees waiting for his own possible death, hardly the image of the colonial killer of animals...he also devoted the last years of his life to saving India's remaining tigers, and stopped hunting them. This book is a great look back into the recent past, a kind of elegy for a lost time and an insight into a man with a great heart.

My all-time favorite author

Jim Corbett is one of my all-time-favorite authors. I have read all his books, but the one I love the most is `Jungle Lore'. I have the first Indian edition of the book. It belonged to my dad who bought it in 1971 for 2.50 Rupees (which is roughly 5 cents)! Corbett loved the jungle. He is considered the greatest tiger hunter India ever knew, and the reason he was so successful was not only because he knew the Kumaon jungle like the back of his hand, but also because he understood the jungle. He could understand the sounds of animals and birds. He could even make those sounds with great accuracy. He could look at the pug marks of animals on a mud path and tell a whole story of what happened there that morning. He had a sixth sense of jungle which he called his "jungle sensitiveness". This book is not about hunting. This is a book about nature. Corbett writes with lot of humbleness and humor. One cannot stop admiring his courage and his vast knowledge of the jungle after reading this book.

Entertaining narrative with genuine depth

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.

THE TRUE NATURALISTS BOOK.

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.

Great nature book about a great naturalist and hunter

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.