This film is part of Free
India: Hunting with Elephants
On the trail of big game in this extraordinary home movie shot by famous hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett
Overview
Edward James (aka Jim) Corbett was one of India’s most famous big game hunters who, improbably, became one of its most significant conservationists. In this film, one of several home movies he made, it is the sheer scale of the hunt which seems so extraordinary today - dozens of elephants and a cast of hundreds. The juxtaposition of images - jolly picnics following the slaughter of ‘big game’ - is particularly unsettling.
Born in 1875 in Nainital, Corbett recorded his hunting exploits in a series of books including Man-Eaters of Kumaon - hugely popular boys’ own adventures that continue to be widely read. Corbett progressed from shooting the wildlife to preserving it and helped to form both the Association for the Preservation of Game in the United Provinces and the All-India Conference for the Preservation of Wild Life. Corbett left India with the rest of the British in 1947, and moved to Kenya where he died in 1955. India’s oldest national park was re-named the Jim Corbett National Park in his honour later that year.
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