How Nepal’s premier national park transformed from a royal hunting ground into a wildlife sanctuary.

Countries & Cities · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Once a private playground where elites shot hundreds of tigers and rhinos, Chitwan National Park now stands as a vital conservation stronghold. This World Heritage Site in Nepal’s Terai region has survived poaching crises and human displacement to become a sanctuary for over 700 species of wildlife.

Established in 1973, Chitwan National Park occupies 952.63 square kilometers in southern Nepal. Its history is marked by extreme shifts in land use. Until the 1950s, the area served as a hunting ground for Nepal’s ruling class, who traveled for weeks to shoot tigers, rhinoceroses, and other large mammals. By the late 1960s, rapid settlement and the eradication of malaria had cleared 70% of the jungle, leaving only 95 rhinos remaining from a population that once numbered 800.

The park's creation was a direct response to this ecological collapse. To combat rampant poaching, the government established the Gaida Gasti, a specialized rhino reconnaissance patrol. However, the conservation effort came at a high social cost. The indigenous Tharu people were forcibly evicted from their traditional lands at gunpoint, with soldiers burning villages and destroying crops to clear the park boundaries. Today, the park remains a critical habitat for the Bengal tiger, Indian rhinoceros, and hundreds of bird species, though it continues to face threats from poaching and environmental change.

Chitwan’s landscape is a dynamic mosaic of sal forests, riverine vegetation, and grasslands, shaped by monsoon floods and seasonal fires. It is part of a larger, 3,549-square-kilometer conservation block that includes the adjacent Parsa National Park and India’s Valmiki National Park. This connectivity is essential for the movement of large animals like gaurs and rhinos. While the park has seen significant recovery—with rhino numbers reaching 605 by 2015—the survival of species like the gharial crocodile remains precarious, highlighting the ongoing challenges of managing such a complex, human-impacted ecosystem.

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