Photo: Shadow Ayush · CC BY-SA 4.0National Parks / Terai / Chitwan
Nepal's First National Park · Est. 1973
At the foot of the Himalayas lies one of the last undisturbed remnants of the Terai — sheltering the Bengal tiger, the one-horned rhinoceros, and the living traditions of the Tharu people.
Connect with the wild heart of Nepal.The Terai — where forest, grassland and river meet
Experience Chitwan
However you like to travel — by jeep, by dugout canoe, on foot, or through the stories of the people who have lived here for centuries.
Tigers, rhinos, gaur, sloth bears and gharial across 68 mammal species.
Meet the animals →
Jeep safaris, canoe trips, jungle walks and birdwatching.
Plan activities →
The indigenous people of the Terai and their living traditions.
Discover culture →
An Important Bird Area — 500+ species.
Take flight →
Sauraha, Kasara, the rivers and the Churia Hills.
Explore regions →
When to come, getting here, safety and passes.
Start planning →Watch
A short introduction to the landscapes and wildlife of Chitwan.
Photo: Lurey Rohit · CC BY-SA 4.0The Flagship Species
By the late 1960s only about 95 rhinos remained as forest was cleared and poaching surged. The crisis prompted Nepal to establish the park in 1973. Today the population has recovered to 694 (2021 count) — the largest in Nepal and the world's second-largest population after Kaziranga, India — protected by army patrols and translocated to Bardia and Shuklaphanta as insurance.
IUCN · VulnerableAdministration
Each park is managed on the ground by a chief warden who reports into Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC).
Wildlife & Ecology
Chitwan's floodplain is one of the most species-rich protected landscapes in Asia. These are the animals the park is famous for — what they eat, where they live, and the conservation stories behind their numbers.
The largest of the three Asian rhino species and the second-largest land mammal in Asia after the elephant. Distinguished by a single black horn (20–60 cm) and thick, silver-brown skin folded into plates that give it an armoured, almost prehistoric look. Bulls can exceed 2,000 kg.
Largely solitary except for females with calves; bulls hold loose, overlapping home ranges. Strong swimmers, they wallow in water and mud through the heat of the day to cool down and shed parasites. Generally placid but can charge with surprising speed when surprised or when a calf is near — a key visitor-safety point.
A mega-herbivore: grasses (especially tall floodplain grasses), plus fruits, leaves, branches, sedges, ferns and aquatic plants. Will raid adjacent farmland for rice, wheat, maize and lentils — a major source of human-wildlife conflict around the park.
The alluvial floodplain grasslands and riverine forest along the Rapti and Narayani rivers — the wet, productive grassland is prime habitat. The Sauraha sector and riverbanks are strongholds.
Chitwan holds 694 rhinos as of the 2021 national count, out of 752 nationally and roughly 4,014 globally — the world's second-largest population of the species after Kaziranga, India.
One of Asia's great conservation recoveries. Once widespread across the Indo-Gangetic plain, hunting and farmland conversion crashed Nepal's rhinos to roughly 100 by the 1950s. Park protection from 1973 with Nepal Army support reversed this — but poaching surged again during the 1996–2006 political insurgency when patrols thinned. Numbers have since climbed back from 605 (2015) to 694 (2021). Ongoing threats include the invasive vine Mikania micrantha smothering grassland, drying wetlands, and the persistent horn trade. Chitwan now exports surplus rhinos to Bardia and Shuklaphanta as insurance populations.
One of the more reliable big-mammal sightings in the park — often seen grazing grassland or wallowing at the water's edge on jeep safaris and canoe trips, especially around dawn.
The park's apex predator and the largest cat in Asia. Solitary, territorial and superbly camouflaged in the tall grass and dappled forest.
Mostly nocturnal and crepuscular; deliberately avoids the times and places people are active, which is why daytime sightings are rare. Males hold large territories overlapping several females' ranges; tigers depend heavily on prey density rather than vegetation — where deer are abundant, tigers follow.
Primarily deer (chital, sambar, hog deer) and wild boar; abundant prey in Chitwan means tigers rarely turn to unusual food. In a documented July 2022 incident a tiger entered the Kasara gharial enclosure and killed three gharials, but specialists noted this was opportunistic rather than driven by prey scarcity.
The grassland–forest mosaic of the floodplain, especially the Chitwan–Parsa complex; occupancy is highest where prey is dense and human presence low.
Nepal counted 355 tigers in the 2022 national survey, up from 121 in 2010 — making Nepal the only country to meet the global 'double the tigers by 2022' goal set at the 2010 St Petersburg summit. Chitwan holds the country's single largest share at 128 tigers; Bardia is close behind at 125, with Parsa 41, Shuklaphanta 36 and Banke 25.
Tiger recovery tracks prey recovery and anti-poaching enforcement. As numbers rise, the frontier challenge has shifted to human-tiger conflict in buffer zones and dispersal into neighbouring Parsa — which is why the Chitwan–Parsa–Valmiki transboundary unit matters.
Genuinely rare and a matter of luck — most visitors hear about tigers rather than see them. Best odds at dawn in quieter sectors; signs (pugmarks, scrapes, alarm calls of deer and langur) are the realistic 'sighting'.
An unmistakable, fish-eating river crocodilian with an extremely long, slender snout lined with ~110 interlocking needle-like teeth; mature males develop a bulbous growth ('ghara') on the snout tip. Among the most evolutionarily distinct of all living crocodilians.
Highly aquatic — far more so than the mugger — hauling out onto sandbanks to bask. The slender snout is adapted for fast sideways snaps to catch fish; harmless to people.
Almost exclusively fish as adults; juveniles also take insects and crustaceans.
Deep, clear, fast stretches of the Narayani and Rapti rivers with sandbanks for basking and nesting.
Critically endangered globally; by the mid-1970s the wild population had collapsed to roughly 300. Chitwan is one of its most important remaining strongholds, with the wild population rising from 239 (2023) to 265 (early 2024).
Nepal's gharial conservation programme runs from the Kasara breeding centre, established 1978 with Frankfurt Zoological Society support. Eggs are collected from riverbanks (wild hatch-and-survival is under 2%, partly because eggs are taken by mongoose and people), hatched and reared in captivity (~50% survival), and released at about five years old and ~150 cm length. The centre currently holds 782 gharials and has released 2,090 individuals across Nepal's rivers since 1981. Despite decades of effort, wild recruitment remains fragile — dams, fishing nets, sand mining and altered river flows are persistent threats.
Often seen basking on sandbanks during dawn canoe trips on the Rapti; the Kasara breeding centre lets you see all ages up close.
A broad-snouted, powerfully built crocodile — the gharial's stockier neighbour, and the one more likely to be a hazard to people and livestock.
A generalist ambush predator; basks on banks and in shallows, more terrestrial-tolerant than the gharial and able to move overland between water bodies in the dry season.
Opportunistic — fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals up to deer size.
Slower rivers, oxbow lakes and marshes, including the Bis Hajar Tal wetland complex.
Vulnerable globally; present across Chitwan's wetlands and rivers (an exact park figure is not reliably published).
Commonly seen basking on the Rapti's banks on canoe trips — the crocodile most visitors actually photograph.
The largest land animal in Asia; wild herds move through Chitwan and its corridors, distinct from the domesticated elephants kept around Sauraha.
Matriarchal herds of females and young; bulls more solitary. Wide-ranging, following seasonal food and water, and known to cross between Chitwan, Parsa and India.
Bulk grazer and browser — grasses, bark, leaves, fruit; raids crops, a conflict flashpoint in buffer zones.
Grassland, riverine forest and forest corridors; movements are transboundary.
Endangered globally; wild numbers in Nepal are small and concentrated in the Terai (no reliable park-specific count published for Chitwan).
Wild herds are seen irregularly; the Sauraha elephant breeding centre is the dependable place to see elephants respectfully (no riding).
A shaggy, long-clawed bear with a pale chest patch and a mobile snout adapted for feeding on insects. Chitwan has one of the higher densities of this species.
Mainly nocturnal; can be aggressive and unpredictable if surprised, making it one of the more dangerous animals to encounter on foot.
Termites and ants (vacuumed up with the lips), plus fruit and honey — a true insectivore-omnivore.
Sal forest and scrub with termite mounds.
Vulnerable globally; present throughout the forested park.
Uncommon and shy — occasional dawn sightings on forest tracks.
The world's largest wild cattle — massive, dark, with a distinctive dorsal ridge; uses the Churia hill forests of the park's southern edge.
Herd-living grazer-browser, generally shy of people; descends to lower grassland seasonally.
Grasses, herbs and browse.
Hill sal forest of the Churia/Siwalik zone and adjacent grassland.
Vulnerable globally; a smaller, less-visible component of the park's large-mammal community.
Less commonly seen than deer or rhino; more likely in the forested southern sectors.
Over 500 bird species recorded — the richest of any protected area in Nepal — across grassland, forest, river and wetland. Chitwan is an Important Bird Area. Roughly 160 species are winter migrants arriving from the north. Dawn in the grasslands and along the Rapti is prime time; October–March is best.
Resident breeding peaks with the monsoon; winter (October–March) brings migrants and the best visibility.
Beyond the two crocodilians, Chitwan holds notable reptiles and a rich fish fauna that underpins the river food web.
Chitwan is a mosaic of four broad vegetation types shaped by the floodplain and the Churia hills. About 70% is sal forest; roughly 20% is grassland; the rest is riverine forest and other types.
⚠ The alien invasive vine Mikania micrantha smothers grassland and riverine habitat and is a documented threat to rhino forage; Chromolaena odorata and Lantana also invade.
Species pages
Long-form, sourced editorial on the species this park protects — their populations, their recoveries, the policy and the science behind them.
Plan Your Visit
Practical context for visitors arriving from another country — how to get here, how long to stay, what you'll actually see, and whether this park fits the trip you have in mind.
Chitwan is the most accessible of Nepal's great wildlife parks — 150 km south of Kathmandu by road, or a 25-minute domestic flight to Bharatpur. Most international visitors come here as part of a longer Nepal trip rather than for Chitwan alone.
It's the country's first national park (1973), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the place you have the best practical chance of seeing greater one-horned rhino, gharial, sloth bear and — if you're patient and lucky — a Bengal tiger. The visitor infrastructure around Sauraha is the most developed of any Nepali park: licensed guides, English-speaking operators and a clear, well-trodden way in.
October to March is the standard season — cool, dry, low grass and the best wildlife visibility. April and May are hot but still rewarding for birding. Late May through September the monsoon makes the floodplain hard to access; tall grass also obscures sightings. The park is busiest in the Christmas–New Year and February windows.
Chitwan delivers what brochures promise — but visitors who arrive expecting a guaranteed tiger leave disappointed. Tigers are real here (around 128 in the 2022 census, Nepal's largest population) but genuinely rare to see; rhinos, by contrast, are close to a sure thing.
Season note. October–March: best mammal visibility (low grass, animals concentrate at water). November–February: peak migrant birds. Monsoon: dramatic landscape but limited safari access.
A separate small guide / safari fee applies per activity; pay through your operator.
Re-confirm rates with your operator — fees are updated periodically.
From the Journal
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Nepal's national parks divide into two genuinely different categories — the Himalayan trekking parks of the high north and the Terai wildlife parks of the southern lowlands. For most first-time visitors, choosing one over the other is the most consequential planning decision of the trip.
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