An Overview

Chitwan National Park is one of Nepal’s most popular tourist destinations. In 1989 more than 31,000 people visited the park, and ten years later already more than 77,000.

There are several lodges inside the national park offering full board and accommodation in combination with elephant and jeep safaris, rafting tours and guided jungle walks. The pioneer safari lodge is Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge which has been receiving guests since 1972, before the national park was established. Tiger Tops has developed standards for responsible conservation tourism and supports the “Long-term Tiger Monitoring Project” of the International Trust for Nature Conservation and anti-poaching units operating in the national park.

Hotels and lodges operating inside Chitwan National Park had to close in July 2012 as the government did not renew licenses and land rental agreements.[18] There are around 350–400 hotels outside the national park, which conduct around 800 elephant rides.

On the edge of the national park Sauraha is a well-known spot for tourists. Accessible from the nearby Bharatpur Airport, Sauraha offers a choice of hotels, lodges, restaurants and agencies that organize day trips into the protected area.

The Chitwan National Park is home to at least 43 species of mammals. The “King of the Jungle” is the Bengal tiger. The alluvial floodplain habitat of the Terai is one of the best tiger habitats anywhere in the world. Since the establishment of Chitwan National Park the initially small population of about 25 individuals has increased to 70–110 in 1980. In some years this population has declined due to poaching and floods. In a long-term study carried out from 1995–2002 tiger researchers identified a relative abundance of 82 breeding tigers and a density of 6 females per 100 km2.Information obtained from camera traps in 2010 and 2011 indicated that tiger density ranged between 4.44 and 6.35 individuals per 100 km2. They offset their temporal activity patterns to be much less active during the day when human activity peaked.

Leopards are most prevalent on the peripheries of the park. They co-exist with tigers, but being socially subordinate are not common in prime tiger habitat. In 1988, a clouded leopard was captured and radio-collared outside the protected area, and released into the park but did not stay. Other felids reported from the protected area comprise fishing cat, jungle cat, leopard cat, and the rare marbled cat.

Chitwan is considered to have the highest population density of sloth bears with an estimated 200 to 250 individuals. Smooth-coated otters inhabit the numerous creeks and rivulets. Golden jackals are common. Bengal foxes, spotted linsangs, palm civets, large and small Indian civets, several species of mongoose, honey badgers and yellow-throated martens roam the jungle for prey. Wild dogs are rare. Striped hyenas prevail on the southern slopes of the Churia Hills.

One horned Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros: since 1973 the population has recovered well and increased to 544 animals around the turn of the century. To ensure the survival of the endangered species in case of epidemics animals are translocated annually from Chitwan to the Bardia National Park and the SuklaPhanta Wildlife Reserve since 1986. However, the population has repeatedly been jeopardized by poaching: in 2002 alone, poachers have killed 37 animals cruelly in order to saw off and sell their valuable horns.

Apart from numerous wild boars also sambar deer, Red muntjac, hog deer and herds of chital inhabit the park. Four-horned antelopes reside predominantly in the hills. Rhesus monkeys, hanuman langurs, Indian pangolins, Indian porcupines, several species of flying squirrels, black-naped hares and endangered hispid hares are also present.

Pokhara

is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nepal.[5] Three out of the ten highest mountains in the world — Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu — are situated within 30 miles (linear distance) of the city, so that the northern skyline of the city offers a very close view of the Himalayas.[6] Due to its proximity to the Annapurna mountain range, the city is also a base for trekkers undertaking the Annapurna Circuit through the ACAP region[7] of the Annapurna ranges in the Himalayas.

Pokhara is quite a modern city; however, many medieval era temples (Barahi temple, Bindhyabasini, Bhadrakali, Sitaldevi, Gita mandir temple, Bhimsen temple) and old newari houses are still a part of the city (Bagar, Bindhyabasini, BhairabTole, etc.). The modern commercial city centres are at Chipledhunga and Mahendrapul (recently renamed as BhimsenChowk).

The city promotes two major hilltops as its viewpoints to view the city and surrounding panaroma, World Peace Pagoda built in 1996 across the southern shore of Phewa lake and Sarangkot which is located northwest of the city. In February 2004, International Mountain Museum (IMM)was opened for public in Ratopahiro to boost city’s tourism attractions. Other museums in the city are Pokhara Regional Museum, an ethnographic museum, Annapurna Natural History Museum which houses preserved specimens of flora and fauna, and contains particularly extensive collection of the butterflies, found in the Western and (ACAP) region of Nepal; and Gurkha Museum featuring history of the Gurkha Soldiers.

FLAVOURS OF CULTURE, WILDLIFE & NATURE TOUR

FLAVOURS OF CULTURE, WILDLIFE & NATURE TOUR