Celebrations as Jim Corbett village turns 101

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Dehradun, December 30

A series of programmes were held to celebrate the completion of 101 years of Corbett Heritage Village of Chotti Haldwani.

Chhoti Haldwani, the village of Jim Corbett, the hunter-turned conservationist stands to be a novel example in bringing together communities, including women and children and spreading the message of conservation.

Only last year, Chhoti Haldwani celebrated completion of its 100 years as heritage village. This year, too, a host of activities were lined up starting from Christmas day. These included cycling, trekking, nature walks, bird watching, talks and workshop on aipan (traditional art). The celebrations began with the ceremonial garlanding of Corbett’s bust at his house which has been turned into a museum, was done by the Nagar Panchayat chairman Pushkar Kathura.

However, the festival was formally inaugurated by Kapil Joshi, Director, Forest Training Academy (FTI), Haldwani. The trainees of the FTI who were present at the inauguration walked the Jim Corbett heritage trail and saw the exhibition of local products. The subsequent day was also activity packed. Visitors identified 50 species of birds on a single bird trail. Trained bird guides Rajesh Bhatt and Mohan Panday accompanied the visitors and assisted them in identifying birds.

Evenings were occupied with screening of a film on Jim Corbett’s legacy, folk dance performances “Jhora” by the community, folk songs on nature, shadow puppet shows by the village children, stalls of traditional food and local handicrafts. The workshop on traditional art of Kumaoni rangoli called ‘aipan’ was a great draw for the visitors. Visitors were hosted in 10 home stays run by locals in Chhoti Haldwani village. Dr Ajay Rawat of Kumaon University also interacted with visitors and briefed them about the forest heritage of Uttarakhand the various forest movements in the state.

The festival was hosted by the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti of Chhoti Haldwani which is a collective of fans of Jim Corbett from his very own village and had support of Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation and Uttarakhand Forest Department Eco tourism wing.