Return to Corbett

Nearly five decades after my first visit as a schoolboy, I returned to Jim Corbett National Park — this time with a camera and a very different appreciation of the forest. Three days and six safaris at Dhikala brought five tiger sightings, including memorable encounters with Perwali and Paarwali. But the trip was about much more than tigers: gharials fighting in the Ramganga, elephants moving through mist, winter light filtering through sal forests, and long, patient waits in the Dhikala grasslands. More than the sightings, it was the landscape, the light and the feeling of being immersed in the forest that stayed with me. After fifty years, Corbett reminded me why some places are worth returning to.