Edward James Corbett (1875-1955) was born in the Himalayan hill station of Nainital. At the young age of seventeen he joined the Indian Railways and twenty-two years later left it to return to Nainital to run a hardware shop. Although he is best known for his hunting exploits, he was also one of the first generation of conservationists in India. When the country gained independence, he emigrated to Kenya where he continued to photograph and occasionally hunt the wild animals which were his greatest passion.
Just Tigers brings together all Jim Corbett’s stories about shooting tigers, many of whom were man-eaters. Taken from Man-eaters of Kumaon, The Temple Tiger and More Man-eaters of Kumaon and Jungle Lore, these fourteen stories are as fresh and thrilling as the day on which they were first published. They show, too, why, besides his legendary exploits as a hunter of man-eaters, Corbett was one of India’s most important conservationists. As Valmik Thapar writes in his introduction: ‘As you thrill to his exploits in the jungles of Kumaon, spare a thought for his legacy. In part due to his efforts and the people he inspired to carry on his work after him...we still have over 2,000 tigers left in India, the largest population of wild tigers in the world.’
