Exploring Corbett Museum & Waterfall
Yesterday’s stroll by the quaint Kosi river was a peaceful and rejuvenating experience. We are really enjoying this slow pace of life thereby allowing ourselves to live the moments rather than just passing time. Today we shall be visiting places of interest in and around Corbett Reserve Forest. Our today’s itinerary is as follows.
- Corbett Museum, Choti Haldwani
- Corbett Falls, Nayagaon Julfikar
- Barati Rau Waterfall, Sandini Chaur
- Centre for Ecotourism and Sustainable Livelihood (CESL), Chunakhan
Corbett Museum, Choti Haldwani
Heartily welcome yourself in Corbett’s home! The house which is today known as a Museum is the same place where Jim (Edward James) Corbett stayed for a long time with his sister Maggie before he shifted to Kenya. The house, located in Choti Haldwani, 3 km from Kaladhungi, served as his winter home; the Gurney House in Nainital being his summer abode. The lady to whom he sold his house later consented to sell it to the forest department so that a museum dedicated to him could come into existence.
The museum showcases some memorabilia connected to Jim Corbett, which include some great valued personal belongings, letters written by him as well as his friends and well wishers, antiques and rare photographs. Just outside the museum, there is a small souvenir shop that is a delight for those keen on picking up local items like pickles, honey, masalas, mugs, hats, T-shirts, small decorative pieces and other such items. Books on Uttarakhand as well as Jim Corbett’s encounter with fearsome tigers that had once made lives a nightmare for people in Uttarakhand is also available.
Corbett Falls, Nayagaon Julfikar
Besides Tigers and wild elephants, the area around Jim Corbett National Park has many small wonders to offer. The entire area of the National Park is abundant with Nature. One of such place which is a small waterfall called Corbett Falls. It is a scenic water fall located at 25 kms from Ramnagar. Developed as a picnic spot for tourist, Corbett Falls is surrounded by dense teak wood forest which extends its natural beauty. Sound of the waterfall makes perfect melody with chippings of the birds. It is located around 4 km from Jim Corbett Museum, Choti Haldwani on Nainital Road towards Ramnagar.
Barati Rau Waterfall, Sandini Chaur
On the way from Choti Haldwani to Ramnagar there is a small village called Chunakhan before Bailparao. From here, a beautiful footpath traverses the dense forest and goes towards Barati Rau Waterfall. The water moving along a one-kilometer trail from Chunakhan to Barati Rau keeps you on track while continuously listening to music. In the thick forest, birds chorus with the rhythm of water.
This place is endowed with a view of natural beauty and biodiversity. This is a great place to get on with nature. Relaxed so much that you come very close to yourself. It is a wonderful place to spend some moments with yourself in nature. Right now there is a lot of time for this place to have plight like Corbett Fall. At the moment there is neither a restaurant nor a crowd of tourists. The Forest Department has also recently brought it into its tourism map.
Centre for Eco-tourism and Sustainable Livelihood (CESL), Chunakhan
Centre for Ecotourism and Sustainable Livelihoods (CESL) was established in 2003 at Chunakhan (Kaladhungi) for awareness, training and research on ecotourism. Regular training courses are being organised for Forest Rest Houses Cooks, training nature guides. The centre shares its campus with the beautiful Forest Rest House of Chunakhan named after the lime (chuna) melting activities carried out in the area. It is a nodal institution for promotion of ecotourism. The centre promotes awareness, training and research on ecotourism to assists the indigenous communities and addresses their livelihood issues. It has conference facilities and ample accommodation. Community based study tours are also organized from here.
We had an amazing day exploring the magical landscape of the National Park. This is just the beginning. We are sure that there’s aplenty in offer for us. We are excitedly looking forward to how the coming days are spent.
