Corbett National Park Celebrates 75th Anniversary with a Paw-fall of 200+ Tigers

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One of the nurseries of India's tiger conservation movement and Asia's first endeavour to have a national park, the Corbett National Park turns 75 this year, marking a string of successes.

Some 200-plus tigers, or almost one in every eight of the big cats surviving in India, live in the Corbett landscape, which is almost 2,000 square kilometres of grasslands and Sal forest covering the reserve and adjoining jungles in Uttarakhand's Shivalik foothills.

The tigers are not the only attractions; the resort is home to a wide gamut of animals, including leopards, elephants, sloth bears and various deer species such as the spotted deer, sambar, nilgai, hog deer, and barking deer.

The reptiles here include the Indian marsh crocodile, gharials (alligators), the king cobra, common krait, cobra, Russels viper, python and monitor lizards, while more than 600 species and subspecies of birds can also be found.

Founded in 1936, the preserve was named after the famous hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett, who was also one of its founding members.

To mark its platinum anniversary, the management has planned a range of activities which are to continue till December. A series of activities have already been held, while many more are on the anvil.

"We are planning to release reports on conservation, and an archival film on Corbett tigers is also being made," park warden U.C. Tiwari said in an interview.

"Our Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has also announced plans to invite Indian cricket captain (and the park's honorary warden) M.S. Dhoni in November," said Tiwari, “adding special safaris for school students is also being organised.”

Considered one of the best-managed parks in India, the park has withstood many challenges: from the onslaught of poaching to changes in the ecosystem and now man-animal conflicts.

The Corbett Park was brought under Project Tiger when this flagship programme to save the big cats was launched by India in 1973. The Corbett Tiger Reserve today is spread across 1,280 sq km, also covering 520 sq km of the Corbett Park.

According to the latest tiger census report released by the government in March, Indian tigers in the wild are around 1,500. A similar report in 2008 showed India had about 1,400 tigers.