Nepal Chitwan and Bardiya NP

[marcox]

As small report from our 2 weeks in nepal last feb.

 

We arrived in kathmandu with thai smile flight from bangkok after enjoying thailand. Our guide from nepal dynamic eco tours was waiting for us outside the airport and we did drive around 6h to chitwan.

 

The next morning we went for a full day jeep safari at chitwan. From the village you have to cross the rapti river on a boat to get to the jeeps. 

 

We spent the whole day exploring the park by car and also doing short walks. Breakfast, Lunch and snacks were provided by our tour company.

 

The first day brougth some exciting sightings like rhinos and bears:

 

 

The second day we went for an other full day jeep safari and we went as early as possible, to maximize our chances to see a tiger. Which worked out perfectly. Beside the cat we saw around 15 rhinos and many more animals, as we drove to the far end of the park and back. Some sightings of the rhinos and bears were while walking or waiting away from the car at a river bank.

 

 

The third day we went for one hour canoeing combined with a 3h jeep safari and walk in the community forest (buffer zone).

 

The boating brought numerus sightings of crocs and gharials.

 

Sightings of the jeep safari at the community forrest:

 

The walk at the river led us to a place at the river with 30-40 crocs and gharials. On the way back we got chased for around 30 minutes from a tusker, who killed an other tourist just a few hours earlier. It took our guides 3 attempts to scare him away while burning the grass behing us untill he gave up. And we came across 2 rhinos as well while walking pretty fast through the bushes trying to escape the elephant... 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by marcox

[marcox]

After relaxing 3 days at pohkara we took a plane to nepalguny airport. From there it was a drive off 2 hours to get to our stay at bardia homestay. Which was perfeclty located just 5 minutes away from the entrance to bardia national park. Where we went for an other 4 full day private jeep safaris.

 

The safaris started around 7 am and there were only about 3-4 jeeps waiting.

 

We had less expectations of sightings, since everybody told us we were pretty lucky at chitwan and sightings overall are less at bardia since a big part of the park is forested. 

 

Safari 1

We managed to see great horn bills and a ganges dolphin beside the usual deers and langurs. But the landscape was absolutetly stunning.

 

Day 2 was much more exciting. We decided to spend the early morning hours to look for leopards. And found a juvenile male walking on the road pretty soon. We followed him for like 10 minutes from a distance and enjoyed this sighting a lot. Which was ended by an other jeep scarring him away sadly.

 

 

Out guide suggested to spend some time on a watch tower near a water hole since there is a good chance to see a tiger. It took us around 30 minutes to reach there and we were waiting an hour or so on the tower. All of a sudden and without any alarm call a tigress appeared from the bushes. We took some shots from the tower and went down to get some pictures from the tiger crossing the road in front of us. Where I took my first picture of a tiger while standing on the same ground.

 

 

 

Day 3 started with a nice sighting of a tusker and luckily we were inside the jeep and did had to run again. In the afternoon our guide received a call from an other guide, who said, there was a tiger sighting beside a river a 40 minutes drive away from us. We decided to go there and hoped we wont be to late.

As we reached the spot there were around 15ppl already watching the tiger from very far on the other side of the river. After a few minutes he got up and went inside the river, where we had a good view.

 

 

 

Day four was even better. We went into to the leopard are again and where waiting at a crossroad and again after barely a minute a leopard appeared on the road walking away from us. The slowly followed him and tried to get a bit closer. For like 15 minutes we were the only car watching him patroling and marking his territory. The sighting ended as usual by an other jeep runing it, but I was more than happy with the sighting.

 

 

 

We took lunch at a river bank and while eating we heard some alarm calls. And soon our lunch was spiced up with a iger sighting.

 

 

 

I highly recommend visiting nepal especially chitwan and bardia. If seeing a tiger and getting close pictures is you main goal you should probably going to an indian park like tadoba or ranthambore. Since the tiger there are more used to jeeps and less shy. But there will be up to 30 other cars and especially in tadoba core.

And all our safaris together at nepal including permit, car, guide, driver, food etc. were cheaper than one full day safari in india.

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by marcox

[michael-ibk]

Thank you, very interesting report. You had fabulous sightings, Tiger Leopard, Sloth, Rhino, Ele - awesome. Less awesome to be chased by a Tusker, that must have been very scary. Did you know at that time that the Ele had just killed somebody? And what happened there? 

[marcox]

21 minutes ago, michael-ibk said:

Thank you, very interesting report. You had fabulous sightings, Tiger Leopard, Sloth, Rhino, Ele - awesome. Less awesome to be chased by a Tusker, that must have been very scary. Did you know at that time that the Ele had just killed somebody? And what happened there? 

 

Yes we saw the same elephant before crossing the river a some mahouts told us that he killed someone in the morning. So we knew it, while he was coming for us. According to the news a tourist from israel entered the park alone and got killed by this elephant. 

 

There must be serious conflicts around chitwan. On one of the safaris we drove 8 villagers back to their place with our jeep, as they were scarred to encounter an other male elephant on thei

r way home. 

I think one elephant called ronaldo destroyed a whole village and killed allready more than 20 ppl.

[Tom Kellie]

~ @marcox:

 

Thank you for your time, care, and patience in preparing this trip report.

 

The variety of wildlife images is especially appreciated.

 

Looking through what's been posted is an education.

 

May your next trip be as full of great sightings as this one was!

 

                 Tom K.

[wilddog]

Fascinating report. Many thanks @marcox

[jeremie]

Wow this is a great Trip Report. After having visited twice Chitwan National Park, I can confirm you that you had a great safari with tough sightings.

You had a great sighting of Ronaldo the male wild tusker with tusks half cut by the park rangers.

You saw twice bears (I only saw once in 2010 at Chitwan from the distance)

Indian bisons are really cool

You suceded in spotting a tiger! This is very cool. Nearly everyday some tourist see tigers at Chitwan, but as you say they are shy you might not be the lucky tourists all the time. We did see a tiger but it was much more far than your sighting.

 

It seems that Bardia is right now the best park for cats sighting in Nepal. Your trip report confirms this assumption, with outstanding leopard experience and what tiger views you had!!! Congrats!

 

Do you mind posting some pictures form my 2022 Chitwan experience too? I will probably never make a trip report from the park

 

 

[marcox]

27 minutes ago, jeremie said:

Wow this is a great Trip Report. After having visited twice Chitwan National Park, I can confirm you that you had a great safari with tough sightings.

You had a great sighting of Ronaldo the male wild tusker with tusks half cut by the park rangers.

You saw twice bears (I only saw once in 2010 at Chitwan from the distance)

Indian bisons are really cool

You suceded in spotting a tiger! This is very cool. Nearly everyday some tourist see tigers at Chitwan, but as you say they are shy you might not be the lucky tourists all the time. We did see a tiger but it was much more far than your sighting.

 

It seems that Bardia is right now the best park for cats sighting in Nepal. Your trip report confirms this assumption, with outstanding leopard experience and what tiger views you had!!! Congrats!

 

Do you mind posting some pictures form my 2022 Chitwan experience too? I will probably never make a trip report from the park

 

 

Thanks for your feedback and stunning pictures.

Actually we had 5 or 6 bear sightings including a mother with 2 cubs on her back. 

Seems it was the bear season after burning the elephant gras.

[jeremie]

51 minutes ago, marcox said:

Thanks for your feedback and stunning pictures.

Actually we had 5 or 6 bear sightings including a mother with 2 cubs on her back. 

Seems it was the bear season after burning the elephant gras.

Outstanding! You bet that April-May is the best season as they burn the grass.

[marcox]

8 hours ago, jeremie said:

Outstanding! You bet that April-May is the best season as they burn the grass.

A big part of the grass was already cut und burned at the end of February. 4 or 5 sightings were around this areas

[Atravelynn]

Thanks for this insightful report.  You chose a great pair of destinations that delivered excellent results.  I love the moody misty atmosphere of the photos.

[JayRon]

@marcoxWhat a great trip report, you did seem to be very lucky.

I have been to Chitwan 2 times, and the first time ( in 2001, that is a long time ago) we also had some great sightings of leopard, tiger, sloth bear and of course plenty of rhinos. In 2014 we didn´t have the same luck. But we also got chased by a male elephant named Dhurpe. At that time he was the most dangerous elephant in southeast asia. Ronaldo was around back then, but back then he only had killed 6 people  I remember what I felt when i/we  (including my 2 children) was/were chased by the elephant. Simply just horror. I can´t even imagine what it must be like for the local people to live with that every day. And they hardly have a choice since they need to go into the forest for wood and grass. Imagine an animal killing 20 people (or just 1 ) in a western country. I don´t think it would survive long. 

Anyway, I am very jealous that you got to Bardia. It is still on my bucket list. Especially since the tiger population have more than tripled from 2009 (18 tigers) to 87 in 2018. That is impressive  

And the best thing about Nepal is that you have very few tourists around. 

[marcox]

25 minutes ago, JayRon said:

@marcoxWhat a great trip report, you did seem to be very lucky.

I have been to Chitwan 2 times, and the first time ( in 2001, that is a long time ago) we also had some great sightings of leopard, tiger, sloth bear and of course plenty of rhinos. In 2014 we didn´t have the same luck. But we also got chased by a male elephant named Dhurpe. At that time he was the most dangerous elephant in southeast asia. Ronaldo was around back then, but back then he only had killed 6 people  I remember what I felt when i/we  (including my 2 children) was/were chased by the elephant. Simply just horror. I can´t even imagine what it must be like for the local people to live with that every day. And they hardly have a choice since they need to go into the forest for wood and grass. Imagine an animal killing 20 people (or just 1 ) in a western country. I don´t think it would survive long. 

Anyway, I am very jealous that you got to Bardia. It is still on my bucket list. Especially since the tiger population have more than tripled from 2009 (18 tigers) to 87 in 2018. That is impressive  

And the best thing about Nepal is that you have very few tourists around. 

This experience really changed my mind about elephants. We have been standing in a field at night in india with two tuskers like 30m in front of us while hearing a male tiger calling from the forrest…will never go this close again I think. 

 

I just checked the newspaper again. We got chased by Govinde not Ronaldo.

 

I hope to get back again to Bardia in a year or two. Its really a wonderful place.

[jeremie]

You are very true @JayRontiger sightings are not guaranteed, and less leopards... I stayed 1 full week in Chitwan in 2011, when I trekked across the park and stayed hours and hours in towers. But unfortunately no tiger. I assume they do all what they can to avoid encounter with people on foot. These cats are really smart and try to do their best to avoid any conflicting situation...

 

By the way, there are now 121-136 tigers in Bardia, according to the last 2022 census. The recovery was so strong that they reached the Chitwan densities. Just extraordinary!

[TonyQ]

Great report, thank you!

[KaliCA]

I also just got an education on two parks new to me. I had no idea that Nepal is home to such great variety of wildlife. Wow! Your  angry elephant encounter sounds frightening. Why does an elephant turn into a killer? What happened in his life to cause this aggression rather than fleeing?

many thanks for posting such extraordinary sightings from an unknown (to me) area. 

[wilddog]

Fascinating. Thank you 

[Ldn2Africa]

Amazing report, thank you, this was very informative and amazing to see! It is always good to get up to date reports from "less frequented" parks, the world over, so I am sure many viewers will appreciate such a resource.

[Ldn2Africa]

Does anyone have experience visiting Shuklaphanta National Park?