English Article

Not Much In A Name

In more ways than one, Corbett National Park is a testament to the well-known adage of historians — the past lives in the present. In and around the forests of Uttarakhand, guesthouses, general stores, gift shops, even saloons, carry Corbett’s name

                  In 1936, India’s first national park was named after Malcolm Hailey, the then governor of the United Provinces.

                                       After Independence, it was renamed Ramganga, after the river that flows through the park. In 1956, the protected area was rechristened once again, after Jim Corbett, the hunter-turned-naturalist, whose name had, by then, become part of the forest’s lore — a rare instance of a public place being named for an Englishman after Independence.