Chitwan, Jan. 6 : Chitwan, the third most popular destination among tourists coming to Nepal has started to provide new attractions and additional amenities for visitor.
The salient attraction for visitors is an open national park where they can enjoy glimpses of rare wildlife such as rhino, tiger, leopard, gariyal crocodile, boar and deer as well as birds of different species in the dense forest.
The community forests here have helped a lot in maintaining the wetlands. This has not only added to the beauty of the park but also assisted in fostering trekking and eco-tourism.
The park has developed as a centre of attraction for water sports and canoeing in the Narayani and Rapti rivers in addition to viewing crocodiles and love birds on the river banks.
The recent millennium Sauraha festival has brought to light the additional facilities set up for visitors.
Foreign as well as domestic tourists had an excellent opportunity to savour this tourist destination.
During the festival which lasted for four days the visitors enjoyed western pop and other music and fashion shows and relaxed with rich cultural and folk dances.
Local tourism entrepreneurs are of the opinion that the festival held under the joint auspices of Nepal Tourism Board, Chitwan Safari and Bigul Expo has amply contributed in promoting domestic tourism.
Some 64 tourist resorts have opened here so far. Of them seven are situated inside the park and the rest outside.
The rural human settlements adjoining the park area such as Sauraha, Kashara and Bagmare are surrounded by greenery and can lure anyone visitor.
In the resorts inside the park, one can encounter people from research scholars to environment experts among the tourists.
Ninety per cent of the visitors who came here show keen interest in the natural beauty of the park and in riding elephants.
The local entrepreneurs however express dissatisfaction over the failure on the park to make available the limited number of elephants kept outside the park.
The 20 elephants deployed at nine points in the park have not been able to meet the demand from all visitors. Warden of the park Gopal Prasad Upadhyaya says, “our first priority is the conservation of the forests area. Providing elephants for visitors comes second”.
Tourism entrepreneurs operating inside the park can exploit their opportunities fully since they have their own elephants. But those on the outside are deprived of this opportunity and feel that not a single resort should be allowed to run inside the park.
Either we should be treated equally or resorts operating inside the park should be removed, a tourism entrepreneur Atma Ram Kharel opines.
Chief executive officer of Nepal Tourism Board Pradeep Raj Pandey maintains that resorts operating outside the park should not be allowed to enter the park area if quality tourism is to be maintained.
The park above all has to maintain environmental balance and protect the wildlife, park warden Upadhyaya says.
It is up to government policy whether to permit resorts within the boundaries of the park or not, Upadhyaya further says.
Though the government has not formulated any policy in this connection, the resorts operating inside the park area are entitled to run their businesses till 2066 b.s., it is learnt.
Visitors, meanwhile have had an opportunity to enjoy motor boating launched here for the first time.
Some environment experts however warned that this may create noise pollution and have an adverse effect to the crocodiles and other wildlife along the rivers.
Chief executive officer Pandey also corroborates this view.
Chitwan is also well known for its religious and historical sites. In addition to religious destinations like Devghat, Balmiki Ashram, Chitrasen Ashram and Bikram Baba, other destination such as Churiya peak and Bishajari lake are equal attractions.
According to statistics, about 100,000 foreign tourists visited here in 1998 and foreign pilgrims also in the same numbers.
But there is a need to project the park’s natural and historical attributes for the further development of tourism.