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Published: April 5th 2007
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One of the things I most looked forward to on my trip to Nepal was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride atop an elephant to see wildlife at Chitwan Wildlife National Park. The park and our accomodations at a place called Safari Narayani -- clean and spartan rooms in bungalows with no phones or televisions -- reminds me of the camp in northern Florida I went to as a child. Each room opens on to a small patio with chairs, and beyond that to a large swimming pool. I thought about taking a dip, but after a couple of other people went swimming and reported that the water was slimy, I decided not to take the plunge.
We ate a simple buffet dinner on the porch of a lodge overlooking the Rapti River. Surprisingly, the air was filled with a lot of smoke. Our local guide told us that the smoke results from local people burning the undergrowth across the river after the thatching harvest. Apparently, the local people have used this burning proces for centuries. One person in our group with respiratory problems was so affected by the smoke that she had to wear a mask.
On our
first full day at Chitwan, we ate a leisurely buffet breakfast served on the porch of the lodge. Then several of us were greeted by about four elephants ready to take us for a ride. Each elephant was controlled by a mahout, who used his bare feet on the elephant's flopping ears as though they were the accelerator of a car. My stepfather Hal and Susan and I all climbed into a platform on a single elephant and set out in a caravan with the other elephants to cross the river to the grasslands and sal trees on the other side. I was a bit nervous as our elephant trudged across the river with four of us on his back. Are we really going to make it across or are we all going to end up in the river? Pretty soon, though, our elephant was lumbering confidently up the muddy bank of the other side of the river and I was holding on for dear life loving every minute.
Sitting atop the elephant was almost like being in heaven looking down at what was going on in the world. Because the elephant did not frighten the other animals, we
were able to get much closer to the wildlife in the park than we could have if we had been in a jeep. And we were protected from the snakes and other things we might have encountered if we had been walking.
Our mahout was much more experienced and therefore better at sighting things than we were. The first thing our mahout pointed out was a family of spotted deer. Hal kidded, "We came half way around the world to see deer? We have these in out backyard!" (In fact, he and Susan have been trying to keep the deer from eating their shrubs.) We also saw a family of bison at Chitwan. Bison sightings must be relatively rare, because our mahout got visibly excited and kept saying, "Very lucky chance! Very lucky chance! What thrilled me the most, though, was encountering a family of rhinos, including a little baby.
Chitwan National Wildlife Park was created in 1973, and about 22,000 people were removed from the area. Previously, Chiwan had been a hunting preserve. The last big Chitwan hunt was in 1939, when a party that included the British Viceroy killed 120 tigers, 38 rhinos, 27 leopards, and
15 sloths. Currently, there are only 50 breeding pairs of tigers -- and we didn't see any tigers at all on our elephant rides. I really hope that ecotourism succeeds in helping Nepal preserve its wildlife and other natural wonders. I really felt a little sorry for the elephants that had to carry us around, but perhaps if they weren't doing that, they'd be dead. And their mahouts might not be able to survive either.
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