How true is The Jungle Book to where it is based?






Rudyard Kipling's tales of The Jungle Book, the story of Mowgli a boy adopted by Wolves and how he comes to terms with where he really belongs is a representative of feral children, those young ones who have no knowledge of the Human world and are at risk of their own lives if they attempt to be like other people. It also teaches us about the wonderful world of animals and where we as people really belong

However the inspiration for Kipling's tales actually comes from the Seone and Satpura areas of Central India and is based around two National Parks, Kanha and its neighbour Pench. Kipling derived his information of Indian Wildlife from naturalist, artist, writer and statesman, Robert Armitage Sterndale whose 1877 true story Seonee, or Camp Life on the Satpura Range  based on a wild trip that Sterndale undertook at that time inspired many scenes from The Jungle Book. Yet Kipling's world while attempting to showcase Indian fauna is not without its contrasts

- Kipling based The Jungle Book on a story he read from the 1830s about a 'Wolf-boy' found in the area where the story is based

- The character of Mowgli was first introduced in the story 'In the Rukh'  which even though written before The Jungle Book introduces the character and his Wolf family

- Indian Wolves (Mowgli's Wolf Family and allies) are very rarely seen in Kanha (Being absent in Pench) and are only found in the Northernmost parts of the Park

- Black Leopards are not native to either Kanha or Pench. They may be but there are just no records or sightings of them

- In the Jungle Book, Elephants like Hathi are portrayed as natives of the jungle but while Elephants were once plentiful across both Kanha and Pench, they are no longer living wild there

- Wild Asian Buffalo which are seen in The Jungle Book do no occur in either Kanha or Pench. The only member of the Cattle Family in these reserves is the Gaur or Indian Bison

- In many versions of The Jungle Book, Baloo is portrayed as a Brown Bear but in the original tale is closer to that of the Sloth Bear which is common in both Kanha and Pench. However his diet matches that of the larger Asiatic Black Bear which does not occur in the National Parks that inspired the books although it is possible that the Asiatic Black Bear may have once roamed through the reserves that inspired the stories and/or that the character may simply be a hybrid of an Asiatic Black Bear and a Sloth Bear 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Differences between Disney's version of White Fang and the book that inspired it

Image
Jack London’s White Fang, a novel about a wild wolfdog who becomes domesticated and mistreated without affection by each master until his last (who teaches him the meaning of love) examines the violent world of animals and how they view the world of man. The book also teaches us about the meaning of morality and redemption as well as how to love our own dogs. The novel has been adapted into a movie numerous times including ones by Anime and Disney in 1982 and 1991 respectively. While the former film is faithful to London’s work (although varying to some degree), the latter film while trying to follow London’s work has taken some liberties in making it so for the most part while following the film’s storyline has differentiated in most part from London’s book. This follows how the Disney film (unlike the almost completely accurate Anime film) is different from the book written by London -        The story is told more from the point of view of Jack Con...
Read more

The Hurricane: Fact vs Fiction

Image
                                              Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter vs George Benton Rubin Carter, a former middleweight boxer nicknamed ‘Hurricane’ for his fighting style is one of the world’s most famous victims of injustice, having spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was further immortalized by the Bob Dylan song Hurricane which was sung to protest his 1967 conviction of the killings of three people in a bar, the same conviction re-imposed on Carter in 1976. In 1985, Carter was released by a federal judge who ruled that the former middleweight contender had not received a fair trial noting that the case was based on racism and the withholding of evidence. Following his release, Carter became an advocate for the wrongly accused. In ...
Read more

Memories of my grandfather

Image
It has been exactly a month since I lost my Grandfather, Mohan Wagh who succumbed to his battle against a stroke that consumed him late last year. I cannot believe he is gone and I am going to miss him. Trips to Mumbai, India where he and my grandmother live will not be the same for any one of us without him. Knowing my grandfather though, he would want me to carry on with life and continue to happily live it and that is what has inspired me to want to create some of the best memories I have ever had with him. I am beginning from what I can clearly remember more so than between the ages of 1 and 4 since the ones after those age gaps are clearer although I have chosen to leave some years out because they do not really count the way the mentioned ones do. This is how I always wish to remember and think of my grandfather who I lovingly called ‘Azoba’ 1995 When I was a little boy, the first Disney film I ever saw (twice) was The Lion King during a visit to Bombay in 19...
Read more