Chitwan is the conservation story the subcontinent can point to without flinching. The greater one-horned rhinoceros was down to a few dozen animals here in the nineteen-sixties; it now grazes the floodplains in numbers, with gharialGharialA critically endangered fish-eating crocodilian of India's rivers, with a very long, narrow snout.Read in the glossary crocodiles back in the rivers and tigers in the salSalA tall hardwood tree that forms the dominant forest of central and northern India.Read in the glossary forest behind.
The park sits in the Terai, the lowland belt along Nepal's southern edge, and it feels nothing like the hills. It is hot, green and riverine, and the Tharu people who have lived with its malarial grasslands for centuries are as much part of the place as the wildlife — their stilt houses, stick dances and river craft included.
Signature Experiences
- ◆One-horned rhinoceros on the floodplain
- ◆A dawn canoe drift down the Rapti
- ◆Tharu river culture, on its own terms
- ◆Gharial and birdlife along the waterways
Optional, By Arrangement
- ◆Birdwatching with the lodge naturalist
- ◆Cycling through Tharu settlements
- ◆A riverside sundowner
- ◆A jungle walk with trackers
Where We Place Our Guests
- Meghauli Serai, a Taj SafariVillas facing the Rapti and the park beyond it, on the quieter western side away from the main tourist front.
The Table
- Bush breakfast on the riverbank
- A Tharu community dinner
- Lodge dining with the river in front of you
Curator's Advisory
Take the dawn canoe drift for gharial and birdlife, the jeep for rhino, and keep the riverbank for sunset — it is the lodge's finest hour and no drive improves on it. Pack for lowland heat and humidity; travellers arriving from Kathmandu routinely underestimate how different the Terai is. Elephant-back safaris are no longer part of what we arrange, and we observe elephants at a proper distance instead.
In & Around Chitwan
Where to Stay
Journeys Through Chitwan
The Journal
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