“Overview”
Chitwan National Park is the first national park in Nepal. It is famous for the best wildlife-viewing National Park in Asia, where you’ll have an excellent chance of spotting endangered One-horned Rhinos, Royal Bengal Tiger, Deer, Monkeys, Wild Boar and up to 544 species of birds.
It was established in 1973 and granted the status of a World Heritage site in 1984. It covers an area of over 367sq mile and is located in the subtropical Inner Terai Lowland of south-central Nepal in the districts of Nawalpur, Parsa, Chitwan and Makawanpur In altitude it ranges from about 100 m (330 ft) in the river valleys to 815 m (2,674 ft) in the Churia Hill,
Since the end of the 19th century used to be a favorite hunting ground for Nepal’s ruling class during the winter seasons. Until the 1950s, the journey from Kathmandu to Nepal’s South was arduous as the area could only be reached by foot. Thus, in an area known as Four Mile Forest comfortable camps were set up for the feudal big game hunters and their entourage, where they stayed for a couple of months shooting hundreds of tigers, rhinocerosses, leopards and sloth bears. In 1950, Chitwan’s forest and grasslands extended over more than 1,000 sq mile and was home to about 800 rhinos. When poor farmers from the mid-hills moved to the Chitwan Valley in search of arable land, the area was subsequently opened for settlement, and poaching of wildlife became rampant. In 1957, the country’s first conservation law inured to the protection of rhinos and their habitat. In 1959, Edwar Pritchard Gee undertook a survey of the area, recommended creation of a protected area north of the Rapti River and of a wildlife sanctuary south of the river for a trial period of ten years. After his subsequent survey of Chitwan in 1963, this time for both the Fauna Preservation Society and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, he recommended extension of the sanctuary to the south. By the end of the 1960s, 70% of Chitwan’s jungles were cleared using DDT, thousands of people had settled there, and only 95 rhinos remained. The dramatic decline of the rhino population and the extent of poaching prompted the government to institute the Gaida Gasti — a rhino reconnaissance patrol of 130 armed men and a network of guard posts all over Chitwan. To prevent the extinction of rhinos the Chitwan National Park was gazetted in December 1970, with borders delineated the following year and established in 1973, initially encompassing an area 210 sq mile In 1977, the park was enlarged to its present area of 360 sq mile In 1997, a bufferzone of over 295sq mile was added to the north and west of the Narayani-Rapti river system, and between the south-eastern boundary of the park and the international border to India. The park’s headquarter is located in Kasara. Close-by the Gharial and Turtle Conservation Breeding Centres have been established. In 2008, a Vulture breeding centre was inaugurated aiming at holding up to 25 pairs of each of the two Gyps vultures’ species now critically endangered in Nepal the Oriental white-backed vulture and the slender-billed vulture.
Chitwan has a tropical monsoon climate with high humidity all through the year. The area is located in the central climatic zone of the Himalaya, where monsoon starts in mid June and eases off in late September. During these 14–15 weeks most of the 2,500 mm yearly precipitation falls – it is pouring with rain. After mid-October the monsoon clouds have retreated, humidity drops off, and the top daily temperature gradually subsides from ±36 °C to ±18 °C at Nights cool down to 5 °C until late December, when it usually rains softly for a few days. Then temperatures start rising gradually. (This tour is ideally extended holiday in Nepal)
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HIGHLIGHTS
- Chances to see Including one-horned rhino, Bengal tiger, etc. You can also encounter langur monkeys, wild boar, sloth bear, jungle cats, pythons, crocodiles, elephants and different species of deer and over 500 species of birds.
- Nepal's Very First National Park