A roar, a trumpet and a song best describe Corbett National Park. It was my second trip to  Corbett  in one year.

Located at a distance of about 245 km north east of New Delhi, the park is spread over 1318.54 sq km. It was first  known as Hailey National Park named after Malcolm Hailey, later renamed as Ramganga National Park after the river that flows through the park. In 1957 in order to pay homage to legendary hunter turned conservationist Sir Edward James Corbett in, the park was renamed as Corbett National Park. It is also the first National Park in the country. In 1972, Corbett National Park was one of the places where ambitious Project Tiger was launched and was also came to be known as Corbett Tiger Service. Corbett National Park has probably the tracts of Himalayan forests. With a large variety of birds, this happens to be an ornithologist’s delight.    

We have  reached Corbett via Moradabad in about five hours. The road conditions are good and one make it there in good time  For those who do like to drive down Indian Railways has daily train upto Ramnagar from Delhi. I our last trip we found this idea a most convenient idea as train  starts in the night and reaches early morning.  

The park is well connected with both rail and road. The nearest international airport is New Delhi and domestic airport is Jolly Grant near the state capital Dheradun. There various segment opens at different times of the year. The Jhirna is open throughout the year, Bijrani and Durga Devi on 1st November and Dhikala on 15th November.   

There are mainly three entrances to the park, Brijlani, Dhangarhi Gate and Durgadevi gates. Brijlanii Gate is for day tourist whereas Dhangarhi and Durgadeviis for people interested in staying inside the park during the night  The road from Ramanagar to Dhandarghi Gate runs along the park periphery on the left and the Ram Ganga on the right. With Girja Devi coming to sight signals the park entrance is not very far. The park has huge amount of grasslands where large amount of animals and birds thrive.  

Dhikala forest rest houses are located on an embankment overlooking Ram Ganga. We have  seen tigers on the grassland across the river.  The river also has a good population of crocodiles and fishes. We have seen two crooks.  One can be lucky to see herds of elephants lazing around on the grasslands. We have seen herds of elephants crossing the road. The Dhikala has three main dirt tracks originating from it namely “Garam Sarak” or warm road, “Thandi Sarak” or cool road and Sambur road named after the Sambur deer. There are elephant safari available for jungle trips in the mornings and evenings We have taken two safaris. Past few years a resident tigress has been regularly seen on the Sambur road. Abount half a km from the road there is a watch tower, where one can go on foot in the afternoon and have a bird’s point of view of the park beyond the river. The food is vegetarian and Indian. Dhikala and Gairal are only places where canteen facilities are available. The places where one can stay apart from Dhikala and Gairal are Khilanoli, Sapduli, Kanda to name the few. The winter months are cold but are also good time for birding. To enjoy and explore the best way is either on jeep or on good old 4 X 4 all terrain vehicle, the mighty elephant. Corbett National Park is probably the most sort after place as here the forests and denizens are magnificent and in complete harmany with each other.