Jim Corbett National Park

Where conservation was born

Established in 1936 as Hailey National Park and later renamed for the hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett, this is the birthplace of India's Project Tiger. Spread across roughly 1,288 km² of the Terai, its mosaic of dense sal, grasslands and the meandering Ramganga shelters one of the country's highest tiger densities.

Beyond the tiger, Corbett is famed for its great herds of wild Asian elephants, the rare gharial and the legendary golden mahseer of its rivers — a landscape as storied as it is wild.

Visits here are built around Corbett's distinct zones — Dhikala's core-zone grasslands along the Ramganga, the more accessible Bijrani, and Jhirna, one of the few gates open through the monsoon. Each has its own character and its own permit, so most travellers plan two or three drives across different zones rather than repeating one, pairing dry-season months with the higher elephant and tiger activity that comes as water sources shrink.