Chitwan National Park. The jungle called and we went
To the Himalayas Nepal It’s impossible to see enough, but we decided that it was time to change the surrounding picture a little and go to the plain. Perhaps the most famous and visited by tourists plain in Nepal is Chitwan National Park, which can be reached from Kathmandu in about 4 hours by minibus.
Chitwan National Park inhabited by various animals, and you can’t just get there: permits and guides are required. All this can be found in a village called Sauraha, which is located in close proximity to the park.
The minibus took us to the town, from which it was another 7 kilometers to the village of Suaraha. We were about to look for a bus to go further, but then a swarm of Suarahi guesthouse owners came upon us: each of them wanted to see us at their place.
Out of habit, we began to brush everyone off, expecting a catch, but then one of the offerors was able to shout to us: “300 rupees for a room! If you don't like it, I'll bring you back." Sounded suspicious! 300 rupees (less than $4) is the lowest price for a room that we have encountered so far in Nepal. There's also a free transfer! Very suspicious... But we still got into the car and drove to Sauraha, along the way listening to the stories of the guesthouse owner about local attractions.
As it turned out upon arrival, the guesthouse consisted of several bungalow houses, each with a shower and toilet, a well-kept area with green grass and a hammock, and there was even Wi-Fi! In addition, the owner promised us a short walking tour of the surrounding area. And, oddly enough, the price did not increase during the trip, and they still wanted the same 300 rupees from us.
Free excursion
Why such a low price in such a tourist place? Perhaps there are more guesthouses in the village of Saurakha than tourists, and this is the reason for the desperate struggle for us at the bus stop? Or is it just not quite “season” yet?
Chitwan National Park
In the village of Saurakha there are many offices (most of them are at guesthouses) that sell permission to enter chitwan national park and offer guide services. Intelligence revealed that prices are equally high everywhere, but may differ by a couple of hundred rupees.
There are several ways to look at the jungle:
- walking tour accompanied by guides
- jeep safari
- elephant safari
It seemed wrong to us to drive through the jungle by car, and we felt sorry for the elephants, so we decided to go to Chitwan Park on foot.
This time we did not look for workarounds into the jungle and honestly paid about 4 thousand rupees at the office for two. For this money we were offered a walk through the jungle lasting several hours, accompanied by two guides armed with sticks. The sticks, fortunately, were not intended for us. But first things first.
The office where we arranged everything offered a choice of two times for a walk through the jungle: early morning (according to them, unfavorable - nothing can be seen through the heavy morning fog) or day. Of course, we chose the second option and at the appointed time, dressed according to the rules (red and white are prohibited), we arrived at the starting point of the route - the canoe pier.
One of the guides, whom we met the day before in a cheerful state, had already sobered up, and the journey could begin.
A boat led by a boatman took us and our two guides along the muddy Chitwan river.
The boat looked extremely unstable, and even swayed dangerously.
And everything would be fine, because we all know how to swim, but...
Smiling...
After the first surprise, we began to speculate: maybe the crocodile is inflatable after all?
Local residents are in no hurry at all:
Why is this lady's face so suspiciously calm?
As we were told, the Nepalese government allows local residents to go to Chitwan Park once a year and collect some plants there. We got to the national park just during this period.
After a long boat ride, we finally landed, thanked the boatman, went ashore... and suddenly we heard a sharp noise and the cracking of branches! A deer was sitting in the bushes, and when we approached, it broke away and ran away.
It's time for our guides to give instructions. The instructions were as follows:
- if you meet a rhinoceros, climb a tree
- if you meet a tiger, look into its eyes - they only attack from behind
- if you meet a bear, everyone needs to take a scary pose and make a lot of noise
- if you meet a wild elephant... nothing will help
On this inspiring note, we followed our guides into the depths of the jungle.
An important thing that is repeated several times in the office when paying for the “tour” and only then by the guides themselves: “We do not guarantee that you will see animals.” So here it depends on your luck: either you meet animals, or your money will go down the drain.
At first we only met these animals:
And these:
But none of the above dangerous animals were visible. In the clearings of the park, we kept bumping into local residents with their harvest, and our guides complained that it was they who scared away all the rhinoceroses.
But suddenly both our guides turned into forest ninjas. And for them only sounds began to exist. With gestures they ordered us to be quiet. Slowly we began to follow one of the guides, the second of them walked behind. Meanwhile, we were looking for a tree that we could climb if something happened... And then in the bushes we saw... Polish tourists! Polish tourists (or rather their guides) were also looking out for someone.
Suddenly we noticed armor in the thickets! And then another one!
The rhinoceroses seemed to be heading straight towards us! It seemed so to the Polish tourist - he freaked out and began to retreat towards the tree. But everything worked out.
During our walk, we learned an interesting detail from the guides: the mating act of rhinoceroses lasts about three hours! That's it!
After the rhinos, the guides decided that now we had enough impressions, and our walk through the jungle soon ended.
But we didn’t mind: even without tigers and mad elephants, we had plenty of time to be scared.
Chitwan National Park is the third most important tourist attraction in Nepal after trekking in the mountains and valleys of Kathmandu. Famous for the snow-capped Himalayan peaks, the country boasts one of the best national parks in Asia, which is located on the plains. This is one of the unique places in the world where you can still observe the Indian rhinoceros and Bengal tiger in the wild. To experience the richness of Nepal's flora and fauna, there is no better place than the Chitwan National Park in this country.
Chitwan National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its biodiversity. The most famous animals of the park are Indian rhinoceroses and Bengal tigers. Seeing a tiger during a safari tour is a great success. The park is home to up to 500 species of mammals, including bears, wild boars, deer, antelopes, and monkeys. Chitwan serves as one of the best places in the world for bird watching, with over 400 species in the park.
The jungle-covered Chitwan Valley has always been known for its abundance of wild animals. For many centuries, malarial swamps protected the animal world and limited human encroachment on this territory. From 1846 to 1951, the Rana dynasty that ruled Nepal turned this place into a hunting ground. The royal family and high-ranking officials lived in comfortable houses for several weeks and during this period hundreds of rhinoceroses, tigers, leopards and sloth bears were killed. But hunting for animals was rare, and fines for poaching were quite serious.
Until the late 1950s, the only inhabitants of the Chitwan Valley, due to their natural immunity to malaria, were a small ethnic group of Nepal - the Tharu. Nepal had a successful malaria eradication program in the 1950s. When the disease ceased to threaten human life, peasants moved to the Chitwan Valley from the mountainous regions of the country. Soon large areas of forest began to be cut down for agriculture. With the disappearance of their usual habitat, the inhabitants themselves were lost. By the mid-1960s, there were fewer than 100 rhinos and 20 tigers.
To avoid complete extinction of animals, King Mahendra made Chitwan a royal reserve, and then converted it into Nepal's first national park. 22 thousand peasants were resettled from the park, and Nepalese army soldiers were deployed to combat poaching, after which the number of animals slowly began to recover.
Attractions
The most popular attraction of the national park is the Indian rhinoceros, which is currently preserved only in Nepal and India. Chitwan is an ideal habitat for these endangered animals.
There are fewer than 3,000 Indian rhinos left in the wild, many of which live in the Indian state of Assam. In Asia, this is the largest animal after the elephant; the weight of some rhinoceroses reaches 2.5 tons, and their thick skin is difficult to pierce even with a bullet.
Despite the protection of these animals by Nepalese army soldiers and punishment for harming them, the issue of poaching still remains relevant due to the high cost of various organs of this animal on the black market. Having killed a rhinoceros and avoided punishment, a poor peasant immediately turns into a wealthy man. A kilogram of horn is valued at about ten thousand dollars and is believed to have magical powers. It is believed that the horns of this animal help to increase sexual feelings, the urine treats asthma and tuberculosis, the droppings are a laxative, the blood helps get rid of menstrual problems, the skin repels evil spirits, and so on.
Several decades ago, the number of rhinoceroses decreased to one hundred, but since the organization of the national park, the number of these animals has increased to four hundred individuals. The park serves as one of the few places in the world where they can walk in safety.
Most tourists hope to see tigers, but few are lucky. Like many other large predators, tigers sleep almost 18 hours a day. Their night walks are camouflaged from humans, so seeing these animals is a great success. Currently, about 100 Bengal tigers live in the national park.
In 1911, the British King George V and his son Edward VIII visited Chitwan and killed 39 tigers and 18 rhinoceroses while hunting. In 1939, the Governor General of India, Victor Hope, visited the then Prime Minister of Nepal, Bahadur Rana. The officials went hunting in Chitwan and within 20 days killed 120 tigers, 38 rhinos, 25 leopards and 15 bears.
At the beginning of the 20th century, approximately one hundred thousand tigers lived in the wild across much of Asia. The immense hunting, which was driven by the demand for skins, had disastrous consequences. There are now several thousand tigers left, living in 7% of their original range. Hunting tigers is prohibited all over the world, but they are not in danger of extinction, since about 20 thousand of these animals live in zoos around the world.
Tours in Chitwan
Elephant ride. Of all the national parks in Nepal, Chitwan is the most popular destination for wildlife trips. For those interested, the elephants in the park's care will lead you on a journey into the jungle, which lasts an hour and a half. Elephant tours are organized twice a day. During peak tourist season there are long queues. The owners of expensive cottages in the park have their own animals and invite their guests to take excursions on elephants. Private elephant keepers offer inexpensive tours outside the national park, but the chances of seeing wild animals are low.
Jeep safari. Jeep safari tours are very popular among vacationers. They last four hours and introduce remote areas of the national park.
Canoe on the Rapti River. Tourists can take a canoe tour on the Rapti River to see marsh crocodiles and gharials. Chitwan is home to over 400 bird species. And a canoe trip will be especially interesting for bird lovers. For an hour, tourists canoe down the river, and then return on foot with a guide.
Chitwan National Park has long been considered Nepal's third most important tourist attraction after trekking in the mountains and valleys of Kathmandu. Known for the beauty of the snow-capped Himalayan peaks, the country boasts of one of the best national parks in Asia, located on the plains. This is one of the few places in the world where the Bengal tiger and Indian rhinoceros can still be seen in the wild. To see the world of animals and birds, the wealth of flora and fauna, there is no better place than Chitwan National Park in Nepal.
The jungle-clad Chitwan Valley has always been renowned for its abundance of wild animals. For many hundreds of years, malarial swamps protected the animal world and minimized human encroachment on this territory. Between 1846 and 1951, the Rana dynasty that ruled Nepal turned the area into a hunting ground. Members of the royal family and high-ranking dignitaries lived in comfortable houses for several weeks and during this time they killed hundreds of tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards and sloth bears. But hunting for animals was carried out occasionally, and the fines for poaching were quite serious (death for killing a rhinoceros).
Until the late 1950s, the only inhabitants of the Chitwan Valley were the Tharu (a small ethnic group of Nepal) due to their natural immunity to malaria. In the 1950s, Nepal successfully implemented a malaria eradication program (the disease carriers, malaria mosquitoes, were destroyed with the drug DDT). When the deadly disease no longer threatened human life, landless peasants from the mountainous regions of the country flocked to the Chitwan Valley. After some time, huge areas of forest were cut down for agriculture. With the disappearance of their usual habitat, the inhabitants themselves disappeared. By the mid-1960s, there were fewer than 100 rhinoceroses and 20 tigers in the territory.
To prevent the animals from going extinct, King Mahendra declared Chitwan a royal reserve and later turned it into Nepal's first national park. 22,000 peasants were resettled from the park, and Nepalese army soldiers were brought in to combat poaching, after which the animal population gradually began to recover.
Sights of Chitwan
The most famous attraction of the national park is the Indian rhinoceros, preserved today only in Nepal and India. Chitwan is an ideal habitat for these critically endangered animals. There are fewer than 3,000 Indian rhinos left in the wild, most of which live in the Indian state of Assam. This is the largest animal in Asia after the elephant, the weight of some individuals reaches 2.5 tons, and their thick skin is difficult to pierce even with a bullet. Despite the protection of these animals by Nepalese army soldiers and severe punishment for harming them, the problem of poaching still remains acute due to the high cost of various organs of this animal on the black market. By killing a rhinoceros and escaping persecution, a poor Nepalese peasant immediately becomes a wealthy man. A kilogram of horn is valued at approximately US$10,000 and is believed to have miraculous powers. It is believed that the horns of this animal help to enhance sexual feelings, the droppings serve as a laxative, the urine treats tuberculosis and asthma, the blood helps get rid of problems with the menstrual cycle, the animal’s skin repels evil spirits, and so on. Several decades ago, their number decreased to less than 100, but since the organization of the national park, the population of these rare animals has been increased to 400 units. The park is one of the few places in the world where they roam in relative safety.
Most visitors hope to see tigers, but few are lucky. Like most large predators, tigers sleep almost 18 hours a day. Their night walks are hidden from humans, so seeing these animals is considered great luck. Today, approximately 100 Bengal tigers roam the national park.
British King George V and his son Edward VIII visited Chitwan in 1911 and killed 39 tigers and 18 rhinoceroses while hunting. In 1939, the Governor General of India, Victor Hope, visited the then Prime Minister of Nepal, Bahadur Rana. The noble dignitaries went hunting in the royal reserve of Chitwan, and during 20 days of hunting they killed 120 tigers, 38 rhinoceroses, 25 leopards and 15 bears. As recently as the early 20th century, an estimated 100,000 tigers lived in the wild across much of Asia. Excessive hunting, driven by the demand for pelts, had disastrous consequences. Today, several thousand tigers remain, living in 7 percent of their original range. Hunting tigers is banned all over the world, but they are not in danger of extinction, since about 20,000 of these animals live in zoos around the world.
Most popular tours in Chitwan
Elephant ride
Of Nepal's 14 national parks and sanctuaries, Chitwan is the most popular destination for wildlife travel. For about $15, the park's elephants will take you on an hour and a half journey into the jungle. Elephant tours are conducted twice a day - in the morning and at four o'clock in the afternoon. During peak tourist season there are long queues. Owners of expensive cottages in the park have their own elephants and offer tours to their clients. Private elephant owners offer cheap excursions outside the national park, but chances of seeing wild animals are slim.
Jeep Safari
Jeep safari tours are very popular. They last approximately four hours and explore remote areas of the national park.
Canoe on the Rapti River
Tourists are offered a canoe tour along the Rapti River, with the opportunity to see swamp crocodiles and gharial - a rare species of crocodiles. Chitwan has over 400 species of birds and a canoe trip is especially attractive for bird lovers. For an hour, tourists canoe down the river, and then return on foot with a guide.
Brief information about the national park
Chitwan National Park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the importance of its biodiversity.
Indian rhinoceroses and Bengal tigers are the most famous animals in the park. Seeing a Bengal tiger during a safari excursion is considered great luck
The park is home to about 50 species of mammals (wild boar, bears, deer, monkeys, antelope) and over 400 species of birds - one of the best places in the world for bird watching.
The most expensive cottages in Chitwan are located in the national park. They have a swimming pool, cocktail bars, their own elephants, organize wildlife tours, and everything else, without electricity or hot water. Cheap hotels are located next to the national park in a village called Sauraha.
Visiting time
The best time to visit the park is from October to March. From April to early June the heat begins, and during the monsoon season (June to mid-September) it rains two to three hours a day. Most of the cottages are closed during the rainy season. Provided the weather is cloudless, a beautiful panorama of the Himalayas surrounding the valley opens up (pictured).
There are three ways to get to Chitwan:
There are daily scheduled flights from Kathmandu to Bharatpur (Bharatpur city is located about 25 km from the park). The flight lasts about half an hour.
The travel agencies on Thamel Road in Kathmandu can arrange rafting trips to the park. The Trisuli River cruise usually starts from the town of Mugling, 110 km from Kathmandu, and lasts two to three days.
We've read a lot about Nepal's royal Chitwan National Park - it has an abundance of rhinoceroses, Himalayan bears and tigers and leopards. And the English King George V and his son, during a hunt in 1911, managed to shoot 39 tigers and 18 rhinoceroses at once. You won't find such animals in Africa. True, there are rhinoceros in Africa, but they are very, very rare there. And the greatest chance of meeting them is on Lake Nakuru.
Chitwan is one of the top three tourist attractions in Nepal after the Kathmandu Valley with its architectural and historical monuments and the Himalayan treks. Its area is 932 km - almost two-thirds of the famous Masai Mara National Park in Kenya. But now they want to add to it the new Parsa Wildlife Reserve with an area of 499 sq. km and then it will be close in size to Masai Mara.
Tourists' assessments of visiting Chitwan are very different - from delight to outright skepticism, denial and exclamations - “a scam”! Is it worth going there if you are short of precious time? I’m not talking about “package” tours - there’s no escape from that.
But for us, free tourists?
All roads lead to Chitwan The park is located in the southern part of Nepal, stretched from west to east, and paved roads lead to it from both main tourist points - Pokhara, located in the west and Kathmandu (in the east). Using tourist buses, you can get to the park in 6-8 hours.
And although the distances between them are small - about 150 and 200 km, respectively, the roads here are not highways - narrow and mountainous with constant serpentines. There are no tunnels at all. Often there are no guardrails along the edges of the road over deep chasms. And if even a small accident happens, traffic jams and loss of time are inevitable.
You can come to Chitwan by two types of buses - the so-called Local Bus and Tourist Bus. The first type of bus is understandable - it stops at every wave of the hand of everyone, the second is more comfortable, costs a little more (a couple of dollars) and makes stops only for snacks and the toilet. Sometimes these stops look very decent - it can be a small hotel with a restaurant in a green area, and sometimes - only near the toilet, the appearance of which made especially squeamish ladies shudder - a tin box over a steep cliff with a light film curtain swaying in the wind overlooking the bus and the road.
We came to Chitwan from the mountainous region of Pokhara. Having bought tickets from a travel agency near our hotel for 500 rupees (85 rupees = $1), we left for the south at 7.30 am. The bus was caught with broken shock absorbers and therefore every hole and bump was felt.
After an hour and a half, stop for the toilet and breakfast. On the road there was a fairly decent hotel for these places with a restaurant and a small green garden with a fountain in the shape of a cobra with a swollen hood. We took a small breakfast - a couple of sandwiches containing flatbreads made from something incomprehensible and a couple of cups of coffee with milk - 640 rupees for two. And again on the road.
An hour later, another stop on the river bank. 4 people got out, taking off quite heavy luggage - they will probably go rafting down the river. The river is below average difficulty. There are practically no thresholds. The flow is normal. And after 15 kilometers it flooded quite widely - I don’t know how they will swim here - they will have to row a lot. After a few kilometers, a fast current appeared again, and then the river, turning to the side, disappeared from view.
Another hour later we arrived in the large and dusty city of Bharatpur. Having passed it, half an hour later we entered another one - smaller, but even more dusty due to fewer asphalt streets. This is Sauraha. Having traveled another two or three kilometers from it, the bus stopped at a small site in the village of Sishawar, where hotel representatives were waiting for us. Having sorted out the arrivals, they took everyone to the tourist village of Chitwan Sauraha, located along the Rapti Nadi river. For those who have not met, there are taxi offers for 250 rupees to any hotel - small jeeps with an open body and two seats on the sides.
Our hotel Rhino Lodge ($20/room) had a very convenient location - it is located in the center of the Chitwan Sauraha village, and its green area, densely planted along the paths with large beautiful dahlias, overlooks the Rapti Nadi river, behind which Chitwan National Park immediately begins . The hotel has two three-story residential buildings. One of them is still finishing finishing work on the third floor. There is a good restaurant - lunch was prepared very quickly. It’s amazing how they can cook everything on the menu so quickly - my wife Tamara admired - it’s like there’s no one, you can’t hear any smells from the kitchen, and suddenly, after 10-15 minutes, everything you order will be brought fresh - with ardor and heat! I couldn't do that!
Then, going up to the hotel manager, we agreed on the program for the next and only day we had. He proposed the following program and prices in rupees per person:
- permission to enter the NP – 1500;
- excursion along the river by canoe (40 min) and on foot for 3 hours – 800; the same for the whole day – 1500;
- jeep safari (13.30 - 17.30 – 1200 / person); whole day for two with lunch on the way - 16,000 rupees;
- elephant ride for a couple of hours – 1300;
- excursion to the “kindergarten” of elephant calves (Elephant breeding center) – 400;
- cultural program in the evening (show with songs and dances) in a restaurant - 150.
We decide to take a canoe and trekking excursion in the morning, and an afternoon jeep safari later.
Morning canoe excursion You need to be on the river bank by 7 am. Here is a meeting place for tourists and their guides. Now the shore is empty, but during the day all the sun loungers are occupied and people spend their free time here.
Tame elephants also slowly descend here for their morning watering hole. And their mahouts stand picturesquely on the backs of elephants. We also met here with our guide Kesav, a 52-year-old man.
He is calm, pleasant-looking, and worked in this park for many years - first as a caretaker, and now as a guide. Kesav took another assistant with him. But, although we are going into the jungle, which, judging by the description, is full of predatory and dangerous wild animals - tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses and Himalayan bears, along with wild elephants and ferocious boars and pigs, they did not have any weapons with them. Only a long stick in his hand. And they didn't even have a machete, a much-needed tool when moving through the jungle!
Having sat down in a long dugout boat and having difficulty maintaining balance while sitting even on low benches, we moved downstream of the Rapti Nadi river. A rower stood at the stern and pushed off the shallow bottom with his pole.
Kesav, telling how many crocodiles there were, looked for them, peering intently at the passing shores. On the right bank from our village, a woman was rinsing clothes in the river, and her two little girls splashed happily nearby.
- What if there are crocodiles? – I asked him a question.
- Local crocodiles love only fish.
- And they grow up to 4 meters?
“And in this river there are famous Gangetic dolphins,” Kesav left the conversation, “and their height is larger than a person’s – over two meters!”
- And where will we see them?
- Right here - in this river. If they jump out.
We see one of the boats running aground ahead. How do dolphins navigate this section of the river?
In such observations and conversations, we swam for about forty minutes past rare herons, storks and marabou. Suddenly some orange spots appeared ahead. As we got closer, we saw several orange-brown ducks grazing on the shore.
ABOUT! Yes, these are Ogar ducks or red ducks!
- Yes, it really is them. Very interesting and beautiful birds. And in some ways they even look like little geese. However, they really are from the order Anseriformes. Like swans, these red ducks are monogamous and live in one pair all their lives, Kesav noted.
With their posture, long neck, short beak and rare flapping of wide, blunt wings, they really looked more like small geese than typical ducks. It was these ducks, Tamara remembered, that were recently shown on TV - how they flew over the frosty five-thousandth Himalayan passes on their way to China.
Cinders are not as simple as they seem. Buddhists in Tibet and Mongolia consider them sacred. They are the same in Slavic mythology. They were credited with many miraculous properties. After all, the veneration of waterfowl among all our peoples goes back to ancient times. And in the first place among them is the “white swan” - as a symbol of purity and purity. And what girl, spinning in front of the mirror, trying on a wedding dress and craning her neck, doesn’t feel like a swan?
We have different legends about ducks - both Ukrainians and Maris used to believe that the duck was the mother of the world. And she actually appears in their legends about the creation of the world. In Russian fairy tales, ducks, geese and swans almost always play a positive role - they predict the future of the hero, save children from evil forces and find brides.
Unfortunately, if most of our hunters still have in their souls a moral prohibition on killing swans, then in relation to this type of ducks, it is absent, and wild cinders, rare in our nature, are a source of pride for the hunting industry.
Finally we landed on the left bank, on which the Royal Chitwan National Park is located. The canoe trip is over. Kesav sent the boatman on his way back, and we began a walking safari through the Nepalese jungle.
Walking Safari in Chitwan Getting off the boat and going up to the shore, on the opposite shore about a hundred meters from us, we saw a lone rhinoceros dragging algae out of the water. This was probably the most delicious and juicy food for him today. On the shore, the grass is dry and trampled in places.
After standing and chewing, the rhinoceros suddenly plopped into the water and, raising all four paws up, began scratching his back on the bottom of the river. By the time I turned on the camera, he was already on his feet again and turned his rough butt towards us. The photo shows that he has some wounds and scuffs on his back left leg. Well, okay – maybe we’ll see someone else. So, number one is there! And this is already wonderful.
Kesav invited us to follow him, and we entered the jungle. Remembering the jungles of Uganda in search of gorillas or the Amazon tributary of Peru in search of anacondas, we prepared for the worst. But the Nepalese jungle of Chitwan turned out to be a good and clean deciduous forest, somewhat reminiscent of our mixed beech, oak and birch groves with low copses and bushes.
The ground was covered with a carpet of fallen leaves that had already turned brown. It's our autumn! The small undergrowth still made it impossible to see the area far. But there was no complete impenetrability of the jungle, through which you need to wade through with a machete. Kesav asked us not to talk or step on dry branches so that they would not crack, and led us onto a barely visible path. Here, as elsewhere on safari, the rule should apply: “The more you are silent, the more you see”!
He looked around carefully and slowly moved forward. Ten, twenty minutes passed. No one. Suddenly he perked up and pointed with his hand - get out! Look! Something pockmarked dived into the bushes.
- This is Wild chicken! – he said importantly in a whisper.
- Ahh - wild chicken.
After standing quietly and not moving for a couple of minutes, we saw a handsome rooster cautiously emerge from behind the bushes. He crowed loudly. But - with some kind of Nepalese accent. And it was also a small sprout, Nepalese. Our family members are twice as big. Where are his hazel grouse? They weren't visible anywhere. Having taken a couple more steps and, apparently sensing us, the rooster rushed headlong into the bushes again.
After walking about a kilometer, Kesav stopped again and pointed to the side - there were small fallow deer! And indeed, about 50 meters away, among the green foliage, light brown bodies of animals were slowly moving. Suddenly, as if on command, they broke away and disappeared.
“It was probably the tiger that scared them away,” Kesav said knowingly.
The animals are no longer visible. I understand that it is getting hot and we are unlikely to see others - they have all laid down until the evening. Seeing our fallen mood, Kesav begins to talk about the animals that are still found in the park.
- There are more than 600 rhinoceroses, and 173 tigers! - he says, as if reading from a book. There are also leopards and wild elephants! And there are also bears!
- Where does such accuracy come from? And how can one generally determine the number of certain animals here?
- It's not difficult. There are scientific methods for counting animals by area, as well as photographic recording of their passage along certain paths.
- So what - they are recognized by their muzzles and faces?
- Some – yes. And then - most animals live in families and live in their specific habitat. And therefore, experts know who and how many offspring appeared.
Realizing that we would not see any more of the animals, Kesav began to show us their tracks. He easily saw many things that we missed without attention - animal tracks on the ground. And in fact, looking closely, it was clear that there were a lot of them. Animal droppings and piles of manure are also traces. And they are all different. This huge pile is really an elephant, and these black peas of different sizes are wild goats and gazelles. And by their appearance you can understand when they passed here - a long time ago or just recently.
Coming out onto a clayey area, Kesav shows us: these are the traces of a wild pig. And this is a doe. But this big one is already a rhinoceros. And we can also already see that they all went early in the morning to the river for a watering hole, and then returned back to the forest. How simple and clear everything became! And it’s even easier on the soul - there are still a lot of animals in the park.
Kesav is well versed in more than just tracks on the ground. Even a broken tree branch tells him a lot - who walked here and who did it - an elephant, a wild boar or a rhinoceros. And, indeed, having looked closely, I can already see that the nature of the fractures and breaks in the branches, their height and the degree of freshness of the leaves on them are different. It was precisely this large branch that the elephant broke as he walked forward. But this one - lower - was chewed and then trampled by a boar.
But the various scratches on trees are especially interesting - they are found both along and across tree trunks. Kesav showed how a rhinoceros scratches a tree, and how a bear scratches. The difference was indeed clearly visible.
A rhinoceros scratches from bottom to top, and a bear scratches from top to bottom. With the whole paw and deep enough. The Himalayan bear has strongly curved short and sharp claws.
This means that there are animals here after all, I finally believed.
- This is the tree that the elephant likes to scratch its sides on. And this is a rhinoceros. - Kesav pointed to the worn-out bark at different heights of large trees.
And, indeed, in these places, different in height, the bark was erased to the ground by such scratching.
What is interesting about these marks and scratches on trees for us tourists, and what are they talking about? For curious people - about a lot. They talk about behavior, habits, degree of hunger and many other aspects of animal life. And whoever cares about this is interested in it.
On the other hand, such a walk through a clean, sunny forest has never been detrimental to anyone’s health.
Coming out to one of the river channels, we saw several elephants with riders on their backs crossing over to our side. This was an elephant excursion heading our way - Elephant Safari. What and who will they see?
Having passed along this channel to the left, we saw a thin and long log lying on the other bank. And a little further away, some two women were doing something in the tall grass. Suddenly the log moved. Yes, it's a crocodile!
“Yes, indeed, this is a crocodile,” Kesav confirmed. - But he only likes fish...
It is now late morning, the sun has risen high and it has become hot. Usually at this time all the animals try to hide in the shadows and lie there rather than search for food. Kesav turned towards the river and led us almost straight to our village. A canoe came up and we crossed to our shore.
There was already a regular performance before the tourists' lunch - elephants bathing. The mahouts invited those who wished to climb onto the backs of the elephants, and they, having collected water with their trunks, then doused their riders with it. The fun was in full swing.
But we still need to have time to drink at least a cup of coffee - in an hour we have the next excursion - a jeep safari!
Chitwan Jeep Safari Jeeps intended for the excursion are already waiting for us on the other side of the river. Apparently, these are some old army vehicles - they have a body behind the cab with two benches on the sides - like for paratroopers.
We sit down on these benches, and our new guide, a young boy Dinesh, gives the command to set off. The car, going deeper into the park, moves west. Ten minutes pass - no one. From the new information that Dinesh gave us, we realized that in addition to rhinoceroses, several rare species of primates, Indian pangolins and porcupines can also be found in the park.
- And there are about 450 species of birds here. If we're lucky, Dinesh said carefully, we might even meet a giant hornbill, and maybe a tiger.
Suddenly the car stops and we see a nest with a couple of marabou right above us. They sit and gently clean each other's feathers. And although they belong to the stork family, they have a much more powerful beak. Marabou are omnivorous and feed on both carrion and fresh food - frogs, insects and rodents. They do not disdain food waste either. Along some of the dirty streets of Nairobi and other African cities, all the roadside trees are dotted with them and they work there as kind of free cleaners. Even vultures feasting on carrion are afraid of their large beaks. And, seeing the marabou flying up, they wisely step aside.
The area through which our car is moving is covered with sparse trees and tall, withered grass. In some places it is scorched. It can be seen that the foliage of the trees was also damaged.
“These are planned grass burnings,” says Dinesh, “but they are controlled by rangers. And in place of the burned dry grass, fresh green grass quickly grows.
Another stop and another surprise - monkeys are jumping from branch to branch right above us.
“This is Hanuman langur,” says Dinesh. - They are revered and protected by Indians as sacred animals, for in India langurs live in almost every temple.
There are many lakes and small rivers in this part of the park and, stopping at one small lake, we saw both a crocodile and a gorgeous peacock on the other bank. And on another lake we met a rhinoceros submerged in the water, patting the water with its long ears. From a distance they looked like the wings of some large bird about to take off.
After a couple of hours of leisurely driving, we reached the western point of our safari and headed in the opposite direction. Time slowly passed towards evening, the heat subsided and the activity of the animals should have increased. And, indeed, the driver noticed several wild boars in the bushes, but they were hard to see and they, flashing among the bushes, quickly ran away. And there a flock of antelope ran in the distance.
Suddenly an unexpected surprise - a rhinoceros came out onto the road right in front of us and stared at us - to attack or not? Wisely deciding that it was not worth it, he turned back into the bushes.
The Chitwan or Indian rhinoceros is significantly different in appearance from the African one. The African ones have smooth skin, while the Chitvan ones have some kind of large folds, reminiscent of the armor of medieval warriors. Scientists call it “shell rhinoceros”. Our driver said that for killing a rhinoceros you can get a prison term of 20 years - exactly the same as for killing a person. And the park is now protected from poachers by army units.
A little later we met another rhinoceros, who was leisurely crossing our path. It’s already too much with the rhinoceroses – this is the fourth one of the day. By African standards, this is a lot for such a short journey that we covered in a day. In Masai Mara, for example, seeing only its horned face among the bushes is considered lucky.
The sun was inexorably rolling towards the horizon and we were almost approaching the river crossing, when the driver suddenly stopped abruptly - a black Himalayan bear jumped out of the bushes onto the road in front of us!
Everyone was taken aback, and he, noticing our car, also got scared and, rushing across the road, quickly disappeared into the tall, withered grass. We were the only ones who saw him! I only managed to make a very short video and pull out a poor photo from it.
Well, that’s where our jeep safari ended. We drove 45 kilometers in 4 hours and saw everything that was described above. Is it a lot or a little? Let everyone judge for themselves and decide whether Chitwan Park is good or not.
But the sunsets are undoubtedly good here. At this time, all tourists gather to see the luminary on the river bank. The mahouts come here again with their elephants. And everyone is trying to capture a unique picture for them, which they have been missing for years at home - the sunset. But here, in Chitwan, you can still put an elephant in the frame of this picture and then everyone gets a masterpiece photo - a sunset, a quiet river and elephants.
This is Chitwan.
Some conclusions from Chitwan Of course, Chitwan NP is fundamentally different from other parks we have visited. For example, African ones. But there are completely different living conditions for animals - large open spaces where everything is clearly visible. And most African animals, especially predators, are not afraid of people who travel only in cars. They let him get very close to them, because they take the machine for an equal being. You can even watch them for hours, sometimes even at arm's length.
This is not possible in Chitwan. Animals live in the forest, and for generations they have been frightened by deadly encounters with a human killer, and therefore, when they see us, they quickly run away. And you need to understand this and not be offended by the park that you were deceived if you did not see what the advertising brochures promised you.
Chitwan is good for those who want not just to see animals in their natural habitat, but also to observe how and where they live, what they eat, what their habits are and what they like to do.
Maybe with a tour on the back of an elephant we would have seen more? After all, they say that the smell of an elephant, and the noise it creates as it moves through the forest, does not scare away the animals and they calmly go about their business.
Who knows? We no longer had time for this trip.
It would be interesting to compare the quality of the Chitwan elephant safari with the walking and jeep safaris we conducted.
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Royal Chitwan National Park(Chitwan) is a national park in Nepal, UNESCO World Heritage Site No. 284. It is located 200 km from the capital Kathmandu.
Until 1973, the park was a favorite hunting ground for Nepalese kings. It was declared a protected area in 1973, the first of Nepal's national parks. The park is one of the few places in the world where wild animals can be observed in their natural habitat.
In 1984, the park was included in the list of UNESCO sites.
The area of the park is 932 square meters. km., mostly covered with jungle. The park has a large number of picturesque rivers and small lakes.
The climate is flat, milder and warmer.
The park is open to tourists. Visitors usually live here in small bungalow-huts or houses. Tours of the park are carried out on elephants or jeeps. The main tourist center in the vicinity of the park is the village of Saurakha. The main attraction of the park is its wildlife. The riot of the jungle and its inhabitants.
Tourists are attracted to the park by the opportunity to see tigers in the wild, but as a rule, few people see tigers, but you are guaranteed to see deer, rhinoceroses, and many birds! 
We left early in the morning
We bought a “ready-made tour” to the park in Pokhara. Because the cost of the tour was, in principle, equal to the cost of an independent trip there, but freed us from all sorts of hassles.
We chose a tour base, Tiger Camp, and we were right because this base has the best location in the village of Saurakha. The journey to Chitwan took us about 8 hours by bus from Pokhara. 
Upon arrival, we checked in and went to explore the village. Not far from our guest house there was a park museum which is certainly interesting to visit for general acquaintance. 
Chitwan is all about relaxation!
In the evening we visited the local elephant breeding center.
From our guesthouse to the center we had to drive a car and cross the river in a rickety canoe.
Along the way we observed the leisurely life of local Nepalese 
Local residents ford the river 
Locals 
On the way we watched elephant polo.
In the center, elephants are fed and their offspring are looked after. As we were assured, these elephants do not participate in the work, and in principle are free, but of their own free will they remain in the center because here they receive food and do not risk being offended by wild elephants, who seem to have expelled them from the pack.
Recently, two elephant calves were born in the center, which is very rare. 
In general, when visiting the center, you get the feeling of a stupid tourist attraction, which it actually is.
But this in no way diminishes the beauty of these beautiful animals and the entire park as a whole!
They say there are many such centers in Thailand, although in 3 times I have never visited any of them. 
These are the trees that grow in Chitwan 
Crossing. Very long canoes made of solid wood 
Evening procession of elephants with tourists on the streets of Sourakhi
We spent the rest of the evening at our hotel enjoying a delicious dinner right on the river bank.
In the morning we had a fascinating tour of the park.
It consisted of several parts.
First, a canoe trip along the river. Then trekking through the jungle, and to top it all off we had to stay overnight in the park itself in a hut specially designed for this!
Since I myself selected the tour in Pokhara, I tried to make it as non-standard as possible. We moved everywhere only as a widow + our guides, it was much better than with a huge group of tourists, as is usually the case in the park!
We were supposed to leave at 7 am, but were delayed for several hours due to heavy fog, other groups were leaving, I think they were not able to see anything! 
Carrier of souls 
Birds of Chitwan. Siberian ducks. They fly to Nepal for the winter from the northeastern regions of Russia.
They know a lot about where to relax))) 
It was very interesting to see crocodiles in the wild habitat 
We were very lucky and saw another crocodile. This is Gavial. It feeds on fish and has long, thin jaws with fragile teeth.
Locals call him the vegetarian crocodile) 
We swam very close to it!
After a two-hour canoe ride, we had a walk through the jungle.
We moved in a group of 4 people, Julia, me and 2 guides. We walked along a well-trodden path, sometimes turning into small paths in the jungle. We expected to see wild animals, but luck did not smile on us. As our guide said, sometimes they are there, sometimes they are not. In fact, this may be for the better; you don’t always want to see an angry rhinoceros on your way. We still managed to see some people. We did see rhinoceroses, but they were feeding in the tall grass on the opposite bank of the river and we could only see their backs. It was a female with a cub, our guide said that if they saw us, they would definitely attack, the female always protects the cub. We also saw many wild monkeys and several deer. 
Forward to the jungle 
Wild monkeys 
Crossing the river 
Nepalese jungle. It couldn't have been done without some processing! 
Walking in this place was a little creepy, something was constantly moving in the grass,
we just expected to see a rhinoceros on our way 
Bear tracks on a tree trunk. 
Wild bees 
In fact, we were in the park not in the best season, our guide said that the best time to visit is late February early March, when locals are mowing the grass in the park, visibility becomes excellent and you can see all the animals grazing on the plains. They also said that they saw tigers in the immediate vicinity of our hotel during the rainy season. I really want to come to the park again and especially during the rainy season. At this time there are no tourists at all and the wild nature comes to life!
Chitwan Park is very large, but tourists are taken only to a small part of it in the vicinity of Sauraha. To see the real jungle, you need to go on foot for several days or even weeks deep into the park! In the park itself there are tourist loggias, which were closed at the time of our visit, but as far as I know, the owners were able to come to an agreement with the government and they were allowed to work again, so tourists had the opportunity to spend time in the very depths of the park, although such a vacation is not cheap, our guide told us that a few days in such a place would cost $700 versus $70 in Sauraha.
So, after walking through the jungle, we returned to our lodge, where we had a snack and watched the sunset on the river bank!
We had to spend the night in the jungle in a special hut! 
The hut is located outside the village, in the so-called buffer zone of the park.
They explained to us that here there are actually much more animals such as rhinoceroses and deer than in the wild because they are fed here.
And indeed, from the hut we saw a lot of deer, which unfortunately I was not able to photograph due to poor lighting and the speed of their movement! 
The hut is built on stilts
We spent the evening in the company of our guide, who talked about his life and local customs!
In the morning at dawn, an elephant came for us and we went for a walk through the dawn jungle! 
Photos do not convey the atmosphere very well 
A huge number of tourists are brought here, but early in the morning there is practically no one 
We were still lucky to see a rhinoceros, he was resting in the morning cool.
Rhinoceroses are not afraid of elephants, and do not recognize people on their backs, so you can get close to them relatively safely! 
It looks something like this 
When we arrived at the departure point, it was already full of drivers and tourists.
