Kumaon

In the Siwalik hills of the lower Kumaon lies one of the world's foremost nature reserves -- Corbett National Park -- home to over 500 of the 1200 or so animal and bird species found in India. The park is named after Jim Corbett, the famous British hunter and writer, whose Man-Eaters of Kumaon and The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag are still worth a read. "Carpet Sahib" often reluctantly responded to villagers' requests for help to kill a man-eater, but in the end he shot more with his camera than with his gun.

At the forest camp Dhikala deep inside the park, we see the Ramganga river flowing through magnificent stands of sal, rohini and haldu trees -- habitat for wild elephants, tigers, leopards, boars, deer like chital, sambhar, barasinga, alligators and crocodiles, monitor lizards, black bears and hundreds of species of birds.