Chitwan National Park

 

When planning to travel to Nepal the first things most people imagine are usually the beautiful Himalayan mountains, trekking through them and the unique yet distinctly different cultures found throughout the country. Travel to the jungle might sound like an absurd option to some who want to vacation here, but for those that have done a little more research on Nepal's travel destinations are well aware of its varied terrain that includes alpine peaks, a hilly region, and tropical jungle as well.

Nepal's Chitwan National Park is not only one of the most

River Along Chitwan National Park

River Along Chitwan National Park

popular parks in the country but it is also the largest protected area as well. Chitwan caters to tourists in the fact that it is one of the most interesting, unique travel destinations in the country. This in mind, there are many Nepal travel websites filled with information about Nepal's most famous wildlife national park at Chitwan, but they explain little about the park by limiting the information to just travel activities. There are even more sites that claim the park as being an amazing organization for wildlife preservation, this may be true but that was not always the case. The Chitwan National Park is not just an ideal place to vacation, for the most part it always has been, but in its past it had a different view of what was a relaxing travel activity for those visiting the park.

Gharial Crocodile, Nepal

Gharial Crocodile, Nepal

In the 1940's-1950 the Terai was owned by Nepal's Rana rulers who claimed the beautiful region for themselves and had Chitwan as their own royal and private hunting grounds. The kings would only invite who they thought were important government persons or other royalty from other countries to travel here and to participate in special hunting parties at their reserve. During such parties, hundreds of Bengal tigers, tens of one-horned rhinos, leopards, exotic birds and other animals like crocodiles and bears were killed, yet these outrageously high numbers of kills did not even put a dent in the population of these species (at first).

Over time with extreme hunting parties traveling through the park and collecting trophies like the one with King George V from England which had a recorded tally with up to 600 elephants alone – not including the other dozens of wildlife species claimed as glorious prizes.

Where the Rana reign thought they were providing large sections of high quality unspoiled habitat for the animals to flourish, the land alone was not enough. As the hunting reserve progressed the one-horned rhinos, usually prized solely for its horn, would have a fluctuation in population from 800 down to 100 in as little as 9 years.

One-Horned Rhino In Chitwan

One-Horned Rhino In Chitwan

With this magnificent and treasured animal population depleting, the kings ceased their hunting parties and made efforts to protect and restore Chitwan's rhino population. The preservation was enforced with a royally funded conservation project in 1959 and the numbers of the rhinoceros steadily increased. After the efforts and success with balancing this wild species population, the park took other steps to conserve not just the rhinoceros but the unique land that these animals call home. Chitwan was officially proclaimed a protected national park in 1973 and would eventually have the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site and would also be known to have one of the strictest anti-poaching policies around the world.