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Royal
Chitwan National Park
Royal
Chitwan National Park stands today as a successful testimony
of nature conservation in South Asia.  This
is the first national park of Nepal established in 1973 to preserve
a unique ecosystem significantly valuable to the whole world.
The park covering a pristine area of 932 sq. km. is situated
in the subtropical inner Terai lowlands of southern central
part of Nepal. The park has gained much wider recognition in
the world when UNESCO included this area on the list of World
Heritage Site in 1984.
Formerly,
the Chitwan valley was well known for big game and was exclusively
managed as a hunting reserve for the Rana Prime Ministers and
their guests until 1950. In 1963, the area south of Rapti was
demarcated as a rhinoceros sanctuary. In 1970, His late Majesty
King Mahendra had approved in principle the creation of Royal
Chitwan National Park.
The
park consists of churia hills, ox-bow lakes, flood plains of
Rapti, Reu and Narayani rivers. The Churia hill rises gradually
towards the east from 150 m to over 800 m. The lower but most
rugged Someshwor hills occupy most of the western portion of
the park. The flood plains of Chitwan are rich alluvial. The
park boundaries have been delineated by the Narayani and Rapti
rivers in the north and west, and the Reu river and Someshwor
hills in the south and south-west. It shares its eastern border
with Parsa Wildlife Reserve.
Seasons
The
park is under the tropical monsoon climate with relatively high
humidity. The winter, spring and monsoon are the three main
seasons. The cool winter season occurs from October to February.
The spring begins in March and is soon followed by summer that
ends in early June. The summer days are typically hot with 30o
c on average day temperature. The monsoon usually begins at
the end of June and continues until September. The mean annual
rainfall is about 2150 mm and during this time of the year rivers
are flooded and most of the roads are virtually closed.
Vegetation
and Animals
The
Chitwan valley is characterized by tropical to subtropical forest.
70% of park vegetation is predominantly Sal ( Shorea robusta
) forest, a moist deciduous climax vegetation type of the Terai
region. The remaining vegetation types include grassland (20%),
riverine forest (7%) and Sal with Chirpine ( Pinus roxburghii
) (3%), the latter occurring at the top of the Churia range.
The riverine forests mainly consists of khair, sissoo and simal.
The simal is with spiny bark when young and develops buttress
at the bottom in older stage. The grasslands form a diverse
and complex community with over 50 species. The Sacchrum species,
often called elephant-grass can reach 8 m, in height. The shorter
grasses such as Imperata is useful for thatch roofs.
There
are more than 43 species of mammals in the park. The park is
specially renowned for the protection of the endangered one-horned
rhinoceros, tiger, gharial crocodile along with many other common
species of wild animals. The estimated population of endangered
species of animals such as gaur, wild elephant, four horned
antelope, striped hyena, pangolin, gangetic dolphin, monitor
lizard, & python, etc.
Some
of the other animals found in the park are samber, chital, hog
deer, barking deer, sloth bear, common leopard, ratel, palm
civet, wilddog, languor, rhesus monkey, etc.
 There
are over 450 species of birds in the park. Among the endangered
birds found in the park are Bengal florican, giant hornbill,
lesser florican, black stork and white stork, Few of the common
birds seen are peafowl, red jungle fowl, and different species
of egrets, herons, kingfishers, flycatchers and woodpeckers.
The best time for bird watching is March and December.
More
than 45 species of amphibians and reptiles occur in the park
and some of which are marsh crocodile, cobra, green pit viper
and various species of frogs and tortoises.
The
park is actively engaged in the scientific studies of several
species of wild flora and fauna.
How
to Get There
The
park is accessible by car or bus on the Kathmandu-Mugling-Narayanghat
Highway and or through Mahendra Rajmarg Highway from Hetauda.
It is about 6 hour's drive form Kathmandu to Narayanghat. Local
buses are available to Tadi Bazar which is about an hour drive
form Narayanghat. A 6 km walk or bullockcart ride brings the
visitors to Sauraha, the park entrance. Also air services from
Kathmandu to Meghauli and Bharatpur air fields are available.
Local buses are available form Narayanghat to Park HQ. Kasara.
Park
Facilities
- Display
Center, Kasara
- Library
at Kasara Sauraha
- Visitor
Center, Sauraha
- Machans
(View tower)
Activities
- Elephant
ride
- Canoeing
- Guided
jungle walk
Fees
- (
PARK FEES ), ( FOREIGNER ) , ( NEPALI )
- (
Park entrance), ( NRs..650.00 ), ( NRs..10.00 )
- (
Elephant ride for about 2 hrs.), (NRs..650.00 ), (NRs..100.00
)
- (Fishing
permit ), ( NRs...300.00 ), ( NRs...20.00 )
- (
Camping per night per person) , (NRs...300.00 ), ( NRs...20.00
)
- (
Guide fee ), (NRs...20.00 ), ( NRs...20.00 )
- (
Gharial Conservation Project ), ( NRs...15.00 )
-
Children under 5 years ---.free
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