According to Jim’s sister Maggie, “Often when I walked along this path at sunset, the background of ripening corn and blue hills was visible in the evening light. I used to think that there could be no more beautiful village in the world”, about Chhoti Haldwani village, where Jim Corbett and his sister used to stay during winters. Which is a popular tourists attraction as a Jim Corbett Museum situated in Kaladhungi Village of Haldwani popularly known as Chhoti Haldwani.
Jim bought forty acres of agricultural land in 1915. He built a house on 4 acres, which was a winter shelter for him and his sister. He built a boundary wall around the entire land and rented it out to 10-15 poor families without any cost. He built a small canal, which was supplying fresh water from the river stream. He named this model village Chhoti Haldwani and took many initiatives for the welfare of its residents, including houses for tenants, irrigation canal and a boundary wall to protect the crops and villagers from wild animals.
The residents of this model village loved him and his sister very much as he often joined them to celebrate local festivals. They moved to Kenya in 1947 and gifted all the houses and land to the residents except their winter house which they sold to a local Mr. Lal. Later it was bought by the Forest Department and converted into a museum and dedicated to Jim. In this Museum personal belongings of Jim’s, various pictures, his life records etc are displayed. This Museum offers many valuable information about this famous environmentalist and his contribution to the Nation.
The generous Jim who was a great hunter, nature lover and soldier was born in 1875 and died in 1955. His full name was Jim Edward James Corbett who was a skilled hunter, conservator of forests, writer, philosopher, human rights activist, a brilliant photographer, British Indian citizen of Irish origin. This national park, in which all the wild animals, mainly tigers, leopards, panthers, Asiatic elephants etc. and innumerable forest wealth are preserved, is dedicated to this world famous skilled hunter a