Nainital is a popular hill station in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and headquarters of Nainital district in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalayas. Situated at an altitude of 2,084 meters (6,837 ft) above sea level, Nainital is set in a valley containing a mango-shaped lake, approximately two miles in circumference, and surrounded by mountains, of which the highest are Naina (2,615 m (8,579 ft) on the north, Deopatha (2,438 m (7,999 ft) on the west, and Ayarpatha (2,278 m (7,474 ft) on the south. Edward James Corbett was a British hunter, tracker and conservationist, author and naturalist, who hunted a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India. Corbett held the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army and was frequently called upon by the government of the United Provinces, now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, to kill man-eating tigers and leopards that were preying on people in the nearby villages of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions.