Within Uttarakhand state’s Nainital district is Jim Corbett National Park, one of India’s national parks. Named for William Malcolm Hailey, a governor of the United Provinces where it was situated at the time, Hailey National Park was the first national park in India when it was created in 1936 during the British rule. Nearly ten years after India gained its independence, in 1956, the park was renamed Corbett National Park in honour of Jim Corbett, a naturalist and hunter who had been instrumental in its founding and had passed away the year prior. Under the Project Tiger concept, the park was the first to open.
The 520.8 km (201.1 sq mi) Corbett National Park is made up of hills, riverine belts, marshy depressions, grasslands, and a sizable lake. Between 1,300 and 4,000 feet (400 and 1,220 meters) is the elevation range. Winter days are beautiful and bright, but the evenings are freezing. July to September sees rain. Geographically and ecologically, the park is similar to the sub-Himalayan belt. Shorea robusta, also known as the sal tree, along with haldu, peepal, rohini, and mango trees make up the dense, damp deciduous forest. 10% of the park is made up of grasslands, and the remaining 73% is covered with forest. About 110 kinds of trees, 50 species of animals, 580 species of birds, and 25 species of reptiles are found there.
The princely realm of Tehri Garhwal once included a portion of the park. The Uttarakhand Forest Department removed the woodlands in order to lessen the area’s susceptibility to Rohilla incursions. In exchange for their help driving the Gurkhas from his territory, the Raja of Tehri formally gave the East India Company a portion of his princely realm.
Under Major Ramsay, the British officer in charge of the area in the 19th century, efforts were made to maintain the region’s forests. The British Forest Department took charge of the property and outlawed agriculture and the operation of cattle stations in 1868, marking the beginning of the area’s protection.
A national park should be established on this land, according to suggestions made by a few British people in the early 1900s, including E. R. Stevans and E. A. Smythies. In 1907, the British government gave the idea of establishing a game reserve there some thought. The process of demarcating such an area did not begin until the 1930s. Asia’s first national park was established in 1936, during the tenure of Sir Malcolm Hailey as Governor of the United Provinces, and had a reserve area of 323.75 km2 (125.00 sq mi).
The reserve was renamed Corbett National Park in honour of writer and naturalist Jim Corbett in 1955–1956 after first becoming Ramganga National Park in 1954–1955. In the 1930s, the park did well under elected management. However, it suffered from widespread poaching and timber harvesting during World War II. As a buffer zone to the Corbett Tiger Reserve, 797.72 km2 (308.00 sq mi) of additional land were added to the reserve in 1991. The whole Kalagarh forest division was added in 1991, incorporating the 301.18 km2 (116.29 sq mi) Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary area into the Kalagarh division.
One of the thirteen protected places included in the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Terai Arch Landscape Program is Corbett National Park. The program intends to restore wildlife corridors to connect 13 protected areas in Nepal and India and facilitate wildlife migration, therefore protecting three of the five terrestrial flagship species: the Indian rhinoceros, the Asian elephant, and the tiger.
With a sub-Himalayan belt structure, Jim Corbett National Park is situated partially along the Doon Valley, which runs between the Siwalik Hills and the Lesser Himalaya in the north and south.Hard sandstone units form broad ridges, and the upper tertiary rocks are exposed around the base of the Shiwalik range. Distinguished longitudinal valleys, known as Duns or Doons in the local language, are produced along the small tectonic zones that separate lineaments. The region’s elevation varies from 360 meters (1,180 feet) to 1,040 meters (3,410 feet). It features a lot of ridges, little plateaus, small streams, and ravines with different slopes and orientations.
In comparison to the majority of other protected places in India, the park experiences mild weather. In the winter, the temperature can range from 5 °C (41 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F), and there may be fog in the mornings. Typically, summertime highs don’t get much higher than 40 °C (104 °F). There is light rain in the winter and significant rain in the summer during the monsoon.