3 Nights 4 Days Chitwan National Park Tour

At a glance

Chitwan National Park, formerly called Royal Chitwan National Park, covers an area of 932 sq km and is the oldest national park in Nepal. Established in 1973, it was granted the status of a World Heritage Site in 1984. The park is located at subtropical inner Terai lowlands of South-Central Nepal in Chitwan district, 200km away from Kathmandu.

Chitwan National Park is rich in flora and fauna, including one of the last populations of single-horned Rhinoceros and the Bengal tiger. The area was known as Four Mile Forest and a hunting reserve for big game hunting until 1951. This national park is just 10 km far from Bharatpur.

Chitwan National park serves as a popular destination for eco-tourists and includes canoeing, elephant rides, and guided jungle walks. Adjacent to the National Park in the east is the Parsa Wildlife Reserve and further east the Bara Hunting Reserve. The vegetation consists mainly of moist deciduous forests, with Sal as the dominating tree species. In the Churia Hills pine trees are found in plenty. On the floodplains of the large Rivers, the Rapti, the Reu and the Narayani there are huge areas covered with Elephant grass alternating with rivers. Forests mainly comprises of of Simal, Khair and Sisau trees.

The Chitwan National Park is home to at least 43 species of mammals, 450 species of birds, and 45 species of amphibians and reptiles. Elephants and Indian rhinos are the largest species found in the park, but a lot of other large herbivores also inhabit the park which includes gaur, sambar deer, Indian muntjac, chital, hog deer, mainland serow, chousingha and wild boar. Three large predator species, tigers, leopards, dholes prey on them and carrion eaters like striped hyenas are also found. Sloth bears are among the main attractions of the Park. Smaller carnivore species are golden jackal, yellow-throated marten, ratel, smooth coated otter, small Indian civet, large Indian civet, spotted linsang, common palm civet, binturong, small Indian mongoose, Indian grey mongoose, crab-eating mongoose, leopard cat, marbled cat and fishing cat. Other mammals found in the park include rhesus monkeys, hanuman langurs, Indian pangolin, northern palm squirrel, red giant flying squirrel, parti-colored flying squirrel, Indian porcupine, hispid hare, Indian hare and Ganges Doplhin. Among the reptiles, marsh crocodiles, gharials and Indian python are the largest.