Wildlife activists call for preservation of Jim Corbetts memorabilia

Wildlife activists in Uttarakhand have called for government intervention to preserve the memorabilia of legendry British hunter-turned-conservator Jim Corbett.

Nainital (Uttarakhand), Oct .3 : Wildlife activists in Uttarakhand have called for government intervention to preserve the memorabilia of legendry British hunter-turned-conservator Jim Corbett.

Gurney house located in the Nainital district was home to Corbett, where a collection of his things - mounted heads of the deer he hunted, books, his bed have been preserved.

Corbett sold the house while leaving India in 1947, and since then it has remained private property.

Activists said the house is heritage property, making it the government's responsibility to preserve it and turn it into a tourist attraction.

"In so many parts of the world, museums are run by public-private cooperation and so this can also work like that. Though the government should not interfere in the working and should give facilities to the owner. With the initiative of the state's tourism ministry, lot of tourists will be attracted towards it," said Ranjeet Bhargav, an activist.

However, the state tourism department said it is trying to take over the responsibility of running the place in consultation with the present owner.

"We are trying to sort it out with the owner who is not there in the town. If the owner wants to sell it or wants to enter into a partnership, we are ready for it. We will try to preserve and develop the place making it more respectable," said Prakash Pant, Tourism Minister.

Corbett National Park attracts more than 60,000 tourists every year, a bulk of them from abroad.

Spread over 1,000 square miles on the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, the park is also the best place to sight elephant, deer and crocodile.

In the year 1973, as part of Project Tiger, Corbett National Park was declared India's very first Tiger Reserve.

The wildlife found in the park include the tiger, elephant, chital, sambar, nilgai, gharial, King Cobra, Indian muntjac, wild boar, hedgehog, common musk shrew, flying fox, Indian pangolin, gray langur and nearly 600 species of birds.

ANI