Chitwan and Barauli

Chitwan is the easiest wildlife in Nepal to reach and the one most first-time visitors end up doing, because it sits on the road between Kathmandu and Pokhara and costs almost no extra travel to add. It is a genuine success story: the greater one-horned rhino was down to around 100 animals in Nepal in the 1960s and there are now more than 750, most of them here.

It is also the most commercial park in the country, and a badly chosen Chitwan trip is a jeep full of people photographing a rhino from thirty metres while a guide shouts. A well-chosen one is a canoe on the Rapti at 6am with mist on the water. The difference is entirely in what you book.

What Chitwan is

Nepal’s first national park, gazetted in 1973, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. 952 square kilometres of sal forest, riverine grassland and floodplain in the lowland Terai, 150 metres above sea level, which means it is hot, humid and nothing like the Nepal in the brochures.

Before the 1950s this was malarial and almost uninhabited except by the Tharu, who carry a genetic resistance to malaria and had farmed the valley for centuries. DDT spraying opened it to settlement, the wildlife collapsed, and the park was created to stop what was left disappearing.

What actually lives there

• Greater one-horned rhino: the reason to come. You will very likely see one.
• Bengal tiger: around 125 in the park. You will very likely not. People who see tigers here have usually spent four days trying.
• Wild elephant, sloth bear, leopard, gaur, four species of deer
• Mugger and gharial crocodile on every sandbank
• More than 500 bird species, which makes it one of the best birding sites in Asia

Nobody can promise you a tiger. What we can tell you is that it comes down to how many days you give it and how early you are willing to start. Those are the two things that change your chances.

How to spend three days

Canoe on the Rapti. A dugout, at first light, drifting rather than paddling. Crocodiles on the banks at arm’s length, kingfishers, and the best chance of a rhino coming down to drink. This is the hour most people remember.

Guided walk in the sal forest. Two naturalists, single file, and a briefing beforehand about what to do if you meet a rhino, which is: get behind a tree, because a rhino cannot turn quickly. It is safe, properly run, and it is where you learn to read tracks and alarm calls rather than just look at animals.

Jeep drive into the grassland. Covers ground the walks cannot. Best after the January grass cutting, when sightlines open up.

A day with the Tharu. The villages around the buffer zone, the stick dance if there is one genuinely happening, and the community museum in Sauraha. Barauli, west of the park, is a Tharu community-run homestay rather than a lodge, and it is the better version of this.

Where to stay

Sauraha is the main hub: dozens of lodges, restaurants, a lively riverside strip at sunset. Easiest for choice and the only place with much of a budget option.

Meghauli, on the western side, is quieter and closer to the grassland where the rhino density is highest.

Barauli is a Tharu community homestay, rooms in the village, meals with the family, and the money staying local. Simpler than a lodge and the point of coming.

The elephant question, straight

Chitwan still sells elephant rides and elephant bathing, and you will be offered both. Captive elephants in Nepal are typically kept chained on short tethers between rides and trained with a hook. Riding also compresses the spine, which is not built for it.

We do not book them, and neither should you. A jeep or a canoe sees more animals and you do not have to think about it afterwards. The same goes for staged “cultural shows” put on for bus groups. Go to a village where something is actually happening instead.

Practical things nobody tells you

• It is hot. October to March is the season for a reason. April and May reach the high thirties with humidity, and monsoon flooding closes parts of the park entirely.
• Leeches in the wet months on forest walks. Long socks, and your guide will have salt.
• The park permit is per entry, not per stay, so a three-day trip with activities inside the park on each day needs three. Factor that in when comparing quotes.
• Malaria risk is low but not zero. Check current advice for the Terai before you travel; most visitors take no prophylaxis but that is a decision for a travel clinic, not a website.
• Bring binoculars. Everyone regrets not having them and lodge loaners are usually poor.