Chitwan National park: A Haven for Wildlife

Nepal, being a relatively small country occupying slightly less than 0.1% of the global land mass but yet extremely rich in its biodiversity. Because of large attitude variation ranging from 60m to 8848m, our country harbor 118 types of ecosystem, 75 types of vegetation and 35 types of forest.

Nearly more than 23 percent of total land are covered by a protected areas which embraces 12 national parks, 1 wildlife reserve, 6 conservation areas and 1 hunting reserve with the primary aim to conserve the charismatic species. And one of them is Chitwan National Park, the oldest national park of Nepal occupying 952.63 sq. km in the subtropical lowlands of the inner Terai.

UNESCO declared the Chitwan National Park as a World Heritage Site in 1984 because in having unique ecosystems of international significance and home to many iconic wild species like Royal Bengal tiger, greater one-horned rhinoceros, Asian wild elephant, gharial crocodile, Ganges river dolphin etc. A total of 68 species of mammals, 544 species of birds, 56 species of herpetofauna and 126 species of fish have been recorded in the park. The park is especially renowned for its protection of One Horned Rhinoceros, Royal Bengal Tiger and Gharial Crocodile. The park is also equipped with many breeding centers for the conservation of threatened species like Gharial Breeding center, Elephant Breeding Center and Vulture Breeding center.

About 30-50 percent of the total park revenue is allocated for community development and natural resource management in the buffer zone. Buffer zones are the area around the protected habitat designed for management and conservation of biodiversity and to ensure the people's participation.

Latest tiger census counts 235 tiger population across Nepal and from which Chitwan National park is expected to hold 93 adult tigers. As per the rhino census held in 2015, it puts total 645 number of rhino population throughout the country where 605 were counted in Chitwan National Park.

Various remarkable security equipment's like CCTV cameras for 24-hours surveillance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or conservation drones for aerial surveillance and GPS-enabled tracking devices for regular monitor are implemented in the park.  Apart from it, Nepal Army personnel, Nepal Police and Community Based Anti-Poaching Unit (CBAPU) are the anti-poaching patrols deployed in most of the protected areas to safeguard the poaching risk.

Chitwan National park celebrates many conservation benchmark with many zero poaching years. For all these outstanding achievements, the utmost credit should be given to all the office staffs, Nepal Army personnel, Nepal Police, community anti-poaching unit, Buffer zone community as well as all the researchers and conservation contributors.

References:

·         Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, Government of Nepal. Chitwan National Park Office. Available at: https://www.chitwannationalpark.gov.np/

·         Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, Government of Nepal. Chitwan National Park. Available at: http://www.dnpwc.gov.np/en/conservation-area-detail/78/

·         CNP completes zero poaching year. The Himalayan Times. Print edition: April 10, 2018. Available at: https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/chitwan-national-park-completes-zero-poaching-year/

·         Nepal doubles its tiger population, giving hope for saving big cats from extinction. Print edition: September 23, 2018. Available at: https://kathmandupost.com/miscellaneous/2018/09/23/tiger-population-up-to-235

Photo1: Elephant safari in Chitwan National Park from Wikimedia commons

Photo2: Chitwan National Park from Wikimedia commons