The busy corporate lifestyle eats into your head. The tall towers, the honking cars make life a maddening haze. Take a break, come to lap of nature at Jim Corbett National Park and get a sight of wild beasts dwelling in the woods of the Jim Corbett and a lifetime moment to capture the pose with the furious Royal Bengal Tiger, everything from its wilderness to its predators makes Corbett- a dream destination for any tourist. Named after the famous hunter turned conservationist, Jim Corbett, the Corbett National Park is considered as one of the best and most fascinating natural reserves and national parks in the world.
It mostly comprises of dense deciduous forest which include sal, haldu, pipal, rohini and other trees that cover close to 73 per cent of the entire park area. This delightful place is home to 110 tree species, 50 species of mammals, 580 bird species and 25 reptile species. The connectivity is pretty good and by Air the closest airport to the Corbett is the Pantnagar airport. By train, Ramnagar is the nearest railway station to Corbett, positioned at the distance of 12 kilometers. Another advantage is of it being efficiently linked with the major cities like Delhi, Lucknow, agra, Nainital, etc.
Jeep Safari at Jim Corbett
The park is divided into five different exclusive tourism zones where tourists are permitted for day visit after obtaining the necessary permits from the forest department. Escorted jeep safaris are available for the day visiting Bijrani, Jhirna, Dhikala, Durgadevi and Dhela area of the park. The jeep safari is essentially conducted for three hours in two different shifts- starting either at 6:00 hrs for morning shift or at around 13:00 hrs for the evening one. The tourists are accompanied by trained naturalist and driver in an open gypsy. It is always advisable to get the safari booked in an advance. In order to ensure the equal distribution of safari vehicles only limited numbers of jeeps are allowed to enter into the park in a given shift.
Trek to Amtouli
Our Day -2 at Corbett the Baagh Resort started with an early morning trek to the sub himalayan hills of Amtouli. The stretch of the trek is 4.8 kms and we were escorted by jeeps to a point from where we trekked down to our resort. The fresh air filling in our lungs and the sense of excitement on being on top of a hill being the highlight.
On our way to the resort we had been provided with knowledge about local Floura and Fauna. Mr, Rakesh Bhatt who was our tour guide and an avid bird watcher helped us to interact with various varieties of species of plants and animals.
Local Village Life
Both of our tour guides, Mr. Imran and Mr Bhatt also shared with us the hardships of the locals who in absence of modern technology have adopted that the lifestyle of mother nature and which helps them in their struggle at each step whether it is technology, finances or safety from the wild animals. In the evening we visited a local village during the ‘Makar Sankranti’ festival or locally named as ‘Ghugutiya’. It’s celebrated with great enthusiasm by the locals. We visited a local household to join them for the celebration. There was this one indigenous sweet made of jaggery and wheat flour which tasted as if it had captured the freshness of the hills and the warmth of the countryside all at once.
