DOSSIER: Jungle Safari

Chitwan National Park
Bardia National Park

The Nepali Wilderness – Who Cares!

We began with a natural, intuitive commitment to making sure wilderness places were left the way we found them. This has become the basis for today’s more clearly articulated code of “minimal impact” that is central to Himalayan Encounters’ philosophy.

It is on this basis that we apply ourselves; with the plains of the Terai, as much as the rivers and mountains, enjoyed, appreciated and marvelled at far more when respect and care are a journey’s hallmark. (Sorry to say, far from all companies apply this simple sensible code.)

‘Rhino Watch’ -
The Terai lowlands are defined by a belt of well-watered floodplains stretching from the Indian border northward to the lower slopes of the Nepali foothills. This is some of the richest habitat in the land with tall grasslands interspersed with riverine and hardwood sal forest. Once some of the most famous big game hunting areas in Asia, Chitwan and Bardia National Parks now offer protection to the one-horned rhinoceros and the elusive Bengal tiger (even though their numbers are increasing). Here one can also see leopard, sloth bear and the gaur (wild bison), swamp deer, musk deer, black buck - the last of a breed of Asiatic wild buffalo, and gharial and marsh mugger crocodile. The areas also abounds in more than 400 species of birdlife with a variety of babbles and orioles, koels and and drongos, peacocks and floricans, and a multitude of wintering wildfowl.