Great India Drive Into the wild

For the 2023 edition of the Great India Drive, Rahul Ghosh travels to the north and south of the country with the Hyundai Exter in search of a wild solace

The fragile ecosystem called Earth is dependent on a mix of flora and fauna. Species, both herbivores and carnivores, thrive here thanks to the prevalence of air and water among other elements. However, this ecosystem is heavily intertwined with each other. Humankind lived in a false belief that it was the predominant species on Earth and over centuries has wreaked havoc in and around the world playing with nature. Such an event occurred in India too. The Tiger, which quite simply sits on top of the food chain was nearly wiped out from our country in the early 70s. To save the Tiger from extinction, the then government launched ‘Project Tiger’, an initiative which would work towards bringing the Tiger population in the country up, and in turn, this would result in saving our forests and in turn the ecosystem. Today, 50 years later, Tigers in our country are thriving and for this year’s Great India Drive, we decided to delve into this topic and explore the wilds of India. Adding to it was the fact that we were given the northern region to explore and quite instantly we chose to head to Corbett National Park, the very place where Project Tiger was launched in 1973. But with that, we also started thinking of finding out the true essence of the man called Jim Corbett.