(In India’s first national park, a new generation of writers, conservationists, local voices and hospitality partners came together to ask what a responsible future for Corbett should look like )
TTT NEWS NETWORK
CORBETT (UTTARAKHAND) | 13 OCTOBER 2026
Corbett has been a place of firsts. Established in 1936 it became India’s first national park. In 1973 it was one of the original nine landscapes where Project Tiger was launched. Corbett’s forests have shaped some of India’s most enduring wildlife writing, photography and conservation thinking.
With the inauguration of the first edition of the Literature Festival, Corbett began another first. The inaugural Corbett Literature Festival took place from 6–8 October 2026, bringing together writers, conservationists, scientists, wildlife photographers, historians, artists, local voices and readers for three days of conversations across the Corbett landscape. But the festival was intended to be more than a literary gathering. It was inaugurated by the Forest Minister and concluded by a local MLA.
It comes at a moment when destinations across India are rapidly developing, and asks a more fundamental question: How do we grow responsibly?
The festival supported by Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, brought more than 20 conversations and with over 30 speakers, the festival explored conservation, coexistence, responsible tourism, Uttarakhand’s cultural heritage, Himalayan ecology and the relationship between communities and the landscapes they call home. The larger ambition was to place conservation and communities at the heart of the conversation about tourism and recognizing that protecting a landscape also means protecting the culture, traditions, livelihoods and local knowledge that have evolved alongside it.
The festival was held with the support of the wider Corbett ecosystem and across three independent hospitality partners: The Riverview Retreat, Aahana Resort & Spa and The Golden Tusk; each opening its doors to a different part of the programme. Rather than presenting hospitality simply as a means of bringing visitors to a destination, the three properties see their role as extending to the future of the landscape in which they operate.
A LANDSCAPE THAT HAS ALWAYS INSPIRED STORIES
From the writings of Jim Corbett to the pioneering wildlife photography and natural history of F.W. Champion, Corbett has long been a landscape where the wild has been observed, documented and interpreted.
Therefore, the festival seeks to continue that tradition while widening the conversation. Its four broad themes: Nature & Wildlife, The Himalayas, Uttarakhand, and Culture & Heritage, bring together national voices with those who live, work and create within the region.
Among the speakers were conservationists Prerna Singh Bindra, Sanjay Gubbi, Vijay Dhasmana, and Raza Kazmi; writers and naturalists including Neha Sinha and Stephen Alter; and wildlife explorers and photographers including Dhritiman Mukherjee, Anup Shah and Akash Das, alongside historians, artists and local cultural practitioners. The programme also looked beyond wildlife itself: towards folk traditions, oral histories, music, food, photography and the lived relationship between people and the forest, bringing names like Pushpesh Pant, Shekhar Pathak, Madhuri Barthwal, Kalyan Singh Rawat to the festival; along with that representation from Corbett National Park: Saket Badola, Praveen Pardeshi, and Samir Sinha.
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