Jim Corbett’s 100-yr-old rifle returns home to his village

NAINITAL: A rifle once used by the legendary hunter-turned conservationist Jim Corbett was brought to Chhoti Haldwani, the village he set up, on Sunday by Marc Newton, managing director of John Rigby & Co, a London-based company specialising in antique guns.

The 0.245 calibre rifle was gifted by Sir JP Hewett, then lieutenant governor of the United Provinces, to Corbett in 1907 after he shot down the "man-eater of Champawat", responsible for a record 436 human deaths. Corbett, legend has it, used the rifle in many of his later exploits and was quite fond of it. He is even believed to have mentioned in a letter that the rifle had "saved my life on numerous occasions."

Sameer Sinha, director of Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) told TOI on Monday that the rifle had been able to come back to India after more than a year of sustained efforts. ''We are thankful to Marc for bringing the rifle back to the land where Jim Corbett lived and worked."

The rifle would be on display at the Corbett Tiger Reserve for the next 10 days.