FIRST NATIONAL PARK OF INDIA

 Jim corbett National Park

     India's first national park, the Jim corbett National Park is located in Nainital district of Uttarakhand. It was set up in 1936 by the British under the United Provinces National Parks Act and was originally named Hailey National Park after Sir Malcolm Hailey, the united Provinces governor who was instrumental in developing the area as a reserve. After independence it was rechristened Ramganga National Park after the river flowing through it. In 1957, it was renamed in honour of the legendary hunter-turned conservationist, Col. Jamed Edward Corbett (1875 - 1955), better known as Jim Corbett, who played a key role in its establishment. 

     Intended as a sanctuary for the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, the park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative. In fact, it is here that Project Tiger was launched in 1973.

     Famed for its astonishing beauty and wildlife, the park is spread out over an area of 520 square kilometres in the valley of the Ramganga river and its tributaries in the Terai forests in the foothills of the Himalayas. Its diverse landscape consists of hills, marshy depressions, grasslands and lakes. It is part of the Corbett Tiger Reserve, an area of 1288.31 square kilometres extending over three districts of Nainital, Almora and Pauri Garhwal that also includes the Sonanadi wildlife Sanctuary and Reserve Forest.

     The park is home to numerous species of wildlife including mammals such as the tiger, leopard, barking deer, sambar deer, Himalayan black bear, Indian grey mongoose, Indian pangolin and rhesus macaque, and more than 500 species of resident and migratory birds including the crested serpent eagle and blossom-headed parakeet.