Royal Chitwan National Park:-

Royal Chitwan National Park has long been regarded as Nepal's third biggest attraction after trekking and the Kathmandu Valley. This huge and beautiful nature reserve protects 932 sq km of sal forest, water marshes and rippling grassland. The park is one of the last refuges of the endangered one-horned Indian rhino and there are sizeable populations of tigers, leopards and rare Gangetic dolphins.

Before the Maoist insurgency, Chitwan was visited by an impressive 92% of all visitors to Nepal, but tourist numbers have plummeted since 2001. The upmarket lodges inside the park still attract decent numbers of visitors, but several budget resorts in Sauraha have closed and others have dropped their rates significantly.

On one level, the wildlife has probably benefited from the reduced visitor numbers , it's a lot easier to hunt when you don't have an elephant-load of tourists shouting and scaring off your prey. However, poaching has increased significantly since the Nepali army stopped patrolling the park, and the rhino population has been hit particularly badly.