Which Himalayan national park is India’s oldest national park?

Jim Corbett National Park is India’s oldest national park and lies in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand.

The protected area was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park, named after Malcolm Hailey, the governor of the United Provinces. It was later renamed Ramganga National Park and then Jim Corbett National Park in honour of the hunter, naturalist and conservationist Jim Corbett.

The park is famous for Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, leopards, deer and rich birdlife. It became one of the original reserves in Project Tiger, India’s national tiger-conservation programme, launched in 1973. Its forests, grasslands and river corridors support varied habitats around the Ramganga reservoir and river system.

Jim Corbett is not the same as Great Himalayan National Park or Nanda Devi National Park. Those protected areas are also in Uttarakhand, but they were established later and protect different high-altitude landscapes.