Chitwan

Chitwan National Park was declared UNESCO Natural Heritage Site in 1979. This park is situated in southern central Nepal, covering 932 sq.km covered with deciduous forests overlooking the floodplains of Narayani, Rapti and Reu rivers. The park headquarters at Kasara is 21 km drive from Bharatpur which is 20 minutes by air or 146 km by road from Kathmandu. In this park there are many Resorts hotels and lodge to accommodate. Independent Himalayan Adventure is using different choices of hotels inside and outside the park.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, cultivation in the valley was deliberately prohibited by the government of Nepal in order to maintain a barrier of disease-ridden forests as a defense against the invasion of diseases from the south. Then for the century between 1846 and 1950, when the Rana prime ministers were de facto rulers of Nepal, Chitwan was declared a private hunting reserve, maintained exclusively for the privileged classes. Penalties for poaching were severe – capital punishment for killing rhino – and the wildlife in the area thus received a measure of protection.

From time to time great hunts for rhino were held during the cool, mosquito-free winter months from December to February. The Ranas invited royalty from Europe and the Princely States of India, as well as other foreign dignitaries, to take part in these grand maneuvers, which were organized on a magnificent scale, often with several hundred leopards.