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Royal Chitwan
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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.
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 and
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, wild dog, langur, 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
mugger 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.
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