A Side Safari at Chitwan National Park

Lelia Jo Dusthimer

Chitwan National Park

Due to potential strikes, our project has been delayed by a few days. This strike was organized by an unofficial Maoist political party that has moderate support from the public. Rumors surfaced of the strike, and it was advisable for us to stay off the roads. Previous strikes have involved main road blockages and even bombs.

Nepal has a republican democratic party system, and has used this system for the past fifteen or so years. The country is currently lead by the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), the largest communist party in all of South Asia. The Maoists oppose the NCP as they feel it poses as a communist party, but promotes more socialist ideals. In particular, they are angry about attacks on freedom of the press.

Because of the strike, to avoid major roads, we spent two days at the nearby Chitwan National Park. While there, we prepared some of our materials and plans for the next few project sites—but also decided to do some sightseeing!

Chitwan National Park is a major tourist destination in Nepal, and the largest national park. Almost 200,000 tourists come each year for a one to two day or week long safari at Chitwan. The park boasts a huge variety of natural wildlife including tigers, rhinos, two species of alligators, and elephants.

We signed up for a basic safari package through our hotel. It would last from 630AM to 1PM the next day. Sriya, in particular, was very excited to see the elephants - so our package focused heavily on time spent with the big grey giants.

At 6AM, we woke up to our one alarm (both of our phones were nearly dead the night before, and the outlets weren’t working) and headed to the park. The day began with an elephant safari. The two of us sat on the back of an elephant - named Menaali - and were accompanied by a guide. The tour was quite lovely, and on the ride we saw numerous species of birds, alligators and a herd of rhinos. Only after the tour was finished did Sriya mention the giant yellow spider she had seen on my back — “you would have fallen off the elephant if I had told you”, and that’s true. Thanks Sriya, I guess.

After the ride, however, the two of us discussed how disheartened we were by the treatment of the elephants by their trainers. Throughout the tour, the trainers had very frequently hit the elephants swiftly with a stick/prod type object to get them to comply with various demands. Personally, the experience made me rethink my consumption of tourist industries that are exploitative of animals and sometimes people as well. I hope in the future to interact in a more ethical way with wildlife.

In addition to the safari, we visited an elephant breeding center - the only one of its kind in Nepal. Last year, elephant mothers at the center gave birth to five babies.

The center was set up in such a way that the baby elephants, but not the mothers, could come to a fence and be petted or fed by visitors. At the recommendation of our guide, we bought several bottles of water and managed to give the baby elephants a refreshing drink in the hot weather (see attached video).

After breakfast, we headed to the elephant bathing station. I initially thought this meant we would be cleaning and scrubbing elephants — a tall order as I’ve failed many times to bathe my own cat in a sink – but no, I was wrong. The elephants would be bathing us.

Yikes.

Excellent water pressure aside, the elephant bath ruined my best kurti, but was altogether enjoyable.

We’ll find out soon if the strike was successful, and once the roads are safe - we’re back on the road to Nawalpur.