Chitwan National Park

“Wait! Stop!” Our guide for our jungle trek stops in his tracks, and then frantically motions us to move back behind the tree. We back-up oblingingly and wait quietly. Chitwan National Park, with its rhinoceros, elephants, tigers and sloth bears, is not the type of place where you want to charge ahead of your guide. We can hear something large slowly moving through the grass ahead of us. We can’t see the source of the noise, as the grass is named elephant grass for a reason: it is tall enough to hide an elephant.

Shh, there's something ahead in the grass

All we can do is stand by the one tree big enough to provide us some protection and wait. We watch the rustling grass move closer to the opening of our trail, until we are able to make out an ear through the grass, then the rest of the animal comes into view, and we find ourselves facing a one-horned rhinoceros.

Our first glimpse...

One-horned rhinoceros

It is a unique experience to be face to face with such a large animal (rhinos can get to well over 6,000 lbs) with no protective fencing in between. The advice our guide gave us at the start of our jungle walk was to either climb or hide behind a tree if we came across a rhino. The one large tree nearby wasn't climbable, and wasn't quite large enough to fit all 7 of us behind it. As the large animal lumbered onto the path, it turned towards us and regarded us for a moment. Rhinos are known for their poor eyesight, and if this one perceived us as some type of threat, it could easily charge. I held my breath, we took photos, and soon it decided we were of no interest and it continued its slow grazing walk. 

This was on the first morning we were in Chitwan National Park, but this was not the first rhinoceros we saw in Chitwan. The night before, after checking into our hotel and getting some food, we took a walk around the town of Sauraha - the tourist base for visiting the park. As the sun started dropping low across the terai, we saw a group of people gathered at the river, and we went over to see what they were looking at. A large rhino was grazing on some grass just across a branch of the river. He was completely ignoring the crowd of people staring and taking photos of him, just enjoying his evening meal. 

One-horned rhinoceros who was hanging out just across
the river from the main section of town on the night we arrived.

We saw four of the endangered one-horned rhinoceros during our 3 days in Chitwan. After malaria was eradicated in the 1950s, and people started moving to Nepal's terai region in droves, Chitwan's rhinos became the victims of poaching and their populations dropped to less than 100. They were the reason for the creation of Nepal's first national park. The populations were steadily increasing until the Maoist takeover caused a near elimination of park patrols. From a high in 2000 of over 600 rhinos, today there are around 400 rhinos in the park. Poaching patrols have started again, and the numbers are again increasing. 

The third rhinoceros we saw over 3 days -
we didn't get a photo of the fourth

Then of course, there were all the other wild animals we saw. Nepal is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, containing 10% of the world's species. Chitwan National Park is one of the most biodiverse areas in Nepal. Over the course of 3 days, and from a jungle trek, jeep safari and elephant safari, we saw a number of animals. Here are some of them...

Marsh mugger crocodile

Oriental pied hornbill

Spotted deer

Rhesus macaque

Crested serpent eagle

Gharial - a strange looking crocodile

We didn't see any wild elephants in Chitwan, although they are found there, but we had a number of elephant encounters.  The first night we were there, we came across one of the working elephants who was in his shelter for the night. His caretakers were making snack balls for him, grass wrapped around a chewy filling. We asked if we could feed him, and were each handed one of the finished snack balls. As I approached the elephant, he lifted his trunk and gently took the snack ball from my hands.

Feeding the elephant

We also inadvertently timed our visit to coincide with the International Elephant Races. We were able to catch one of the final races. All the elephants are decorated with chalk and paint and different colored banners. They line up at the starting line, and wait fairly patiently for the gun to fire. Then they run. If you've never seen an elephant run, it is somehow very comical. Watch the movie below to see. You can also see how seriously Nepalis take their elephant races!

At the 7th Annual International Elephant Races

Waiting at the starting line

Decorated and ready to run

Another elephant encounter we had during our time in Chitwan, was a visit to the Elephant Breeding Center. You are able to go there and interact with the baby elephants until mid-morning, at which time they take all the elephants to the jungle to feed. We didn't make it out to the breeding center until mid-morning, and were told we were too late, the elephants are gone, we should come back in late afternoon when they return from the jungle. We started to walk back the way we came, but then we saw a line of elephants of all ages leaving from the back of the center and making their way to the river. Of course, we followed them. We walked along with the elephants, including one very playful younger elephant who was running along and trumpeting the whole way. We watched them drinking and bathing in the river, before they headed off to the jungle.

Sean making friends with a baby elephant near the
Elephant Breeding Center

I'm sure I could have spent another full week in Chitwan and still not have seen everything. I would love to visit there again!