A special cake made of rice flour with jaggery and decorated with bananas, apple and carrots was prepared for the occasion. When chief conservationist officer of the Chitwan National Park, Narendraman Babu Pradhan fed the twin calves with the cake, all other elephants produced an amazing sound as an expression of “best wishes” for the young twin elephants. After that, all the people present offered flower garland to the elephant calves and fed the cake too.

The function was organized with a view of giving more attention on elephant care and their breeding. Twin birth in elephant is rare and these twin calves are the first twin baby elephants in the South Asia.

Mother of the twin, Devikali (40) gave birth to these twins one year ago. Unfortunately, their father elephant, namely Romeo died at the age of 45 via electrical fencing of the national park prior to their birth. Now, the breeding center is hopeful that these twins will help in breeding in the future.

Twenty-two years ago, 16 elephants from India were exchanged with four one-horned rhino from Nepal. Now, the number of elephants in the breeding center is 20 along with 13 baby elephants.

Tourists visiting Chitwan National Park enjoy visiting this breeding center and playing with the elephants calves.

Jungle Safari on elephant back is not-to-miss activity during Chitwan National Park visit.

Thus, to formulate the common agenda and strategy for preservation of tiger, 210 tiger specialists, analysts, and conservationists of the world are attending a meeting on 26th October 2009 in Kathmandu along with a subsequent four-day Global Tiger Workshop.

This is 2nd year of Nepal being the president of GTF. As being president country of Global Tiger Forum (GTF), the meeting is organized in Nepal in special proposal and sponsorship of World Bank and its sister organizations such as Global Tiger Initiative, Save the Tiger fund America, World Wildlife Federation (WWF), International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) etc. Tigers are also listed in the IUCN Red List book.

Conserving habitats of tigers, banning international trade, identification of proper place for tiger and conservation of small animals that tigers depend on are the main matter of discussion. Obviously, the meeting aims to aid to increase the number of tigers in the world. Besides, it will propose for enlarging the Bardia National conservation area to double of its total area. The conference will also fix the place for next ministerial tiger conference. GTF members have decided to celebrate the year 2010 as “The Tiger year.”

It is said that are about 3000 to 4000 tigers in the world. According to survey results publicized about 2 months ago, there are about 1 hundred and 21 young tigers in Nepal where Chitwan National Parks acquires 91, Bardia National Park acquires 18, Shuklanphant Wildlife Reserve acquires 8 and Parsa Wildlife Reserve acquires only 4. Only Chitwan National Park has satisfactory number of tigers but others’ are very pitiful. Camera trapping had trapped 27 tigers in 2006 in Shuklanphant Wildlife Reserve, but within 3 years 19 tigers disappeared dramatically.

Since 1999, tigers are being counted every 5 years. There were about 123 adult tigers in Nepal in 1999. “If there had been no theft and illegal hunting of tigers, the number of tigers would have reached to 400. If appropriate environment and condition is created population of tiger grows fast because as soon as cubs grow, they are ready for reproduction,” said Deputy Director General of Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Megh Bahadur Pandey.

The decision was made after about 15 organizations associated with the tourism industry appealed to the government to let them operate the business until the Tourism Promotion Year 2011. As the decision is made, hotels, lodges and resorts—Island Jungle Resort, Temple Tigers, Tiger Tops, Safari Narayani, Chitwan Jungle Lodge Pvt Ltd, Machan Wildlife Resort and Gaida Wildlife Camp are going to get new life, however, they owe an accumulated amount of around Rs 35 million to the government in terms of conservation fee, fine for not paying the conservation fee, revenues and Value Added Tax.  The CNP office had notified that their operations and business activities ought to be closed down from July 15 in case their indenture was not renewed.

The Chitwan National Park, one the World Heritage Sites of Nepal is home to nearly extinct wildlife such as one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal Tiger. It is popular as one of the best tourism destinations in Nepal and ranks itself after Everest and Annapurna trekking regions.

The PAC constituting a seven-member sub-committee, headed by Maoist CA member Narayan Prasad Dahal was supposed to come up with a solution within 15 days on August 9.  Two major fractions of views were shoring up in debates since long about renewing facilities to operate these hotels and resorts. Local communities, local representatives of major political parties, officials of Buffer Zone Council and environmentalists had been calling for the closure of their activities inside the CNP arguing that the facilities given by CNP to these resorts and hotels are creating threats to the wildlife environment. They even accused that poaching of one-horned rhinos and Royal Bengal tigers was uncontrolled due to their presence inside the CNP. While there are some groups who argue that if the facilities and activities of these hotels and resorts are closed the poaching of wild animals will be unchecked and rampant.
However, the PAC has imposed some strict conditions for the given opportunity to operate again inside the CNP:

1. The hotels, lodges and resorts are made mandatory to clear the dues to the government within a month. The PAC has also advised the government to add more taxes in terms of royalty, VAT and conservation fee.
2. They will not be allowed to take elephants safaris, jeep safari in and around the CNP before dawn and after dusk. Even the provision was same in the past also, it was not strictly obeyed.
3. These hotels, lodges and resorts are required to provide facilities to the employees in accordance with the labor laws even after December 2011, a sub-committee report submitted to the PAC.
4. The facilities will have to enhance development activities benefiting the local communities.
   The committee has also prohibited the hotels, lodges and resorts from displaying the contraband wildlife items. It directed the CNP authorities to reduce the existing disparities in park entry fee of elephants run by hotels outside the park and the others located inside it.
5. The parliamentary body also directed the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation and its concerned department to conduct an Environment Impact Assessment study within a year.

Of course, if the hotels, lodges and resorts operate their activities according to the made agreements and rules, they are going to aid a great deal in government’s finance.

• Group C: Mountain and Volcanoes – Mount Everest
• Group E: Forests, National Parks, Nature Reserves – Chitwan National Park

Live Ranking: http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/liveranking/