Royal Chitwan National Park- The Quest for Tigers

  Sauraha, Nepal
Saturday, December 15, 2007

Royal Chitwan National Park - The Quest for Tigers

Today we were on a quest to see some wild tigers! Although I still wasn't completely convinced that finding a tiger would be something that we really want to do after hearing some frightening stories. I kept thinking it could turn out to be one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments. Regardless, we were going in.

Our team for this was small. This was a bonus. It was just Mazen and I and then our guide/facilitator Jog and another guy from the lodge (his name was Chitram). Fortunately, they had both grown up in this area so they were quite familiar with where we should trek in order to see wildlife and hopefully a tiger.

Baby Elephant1

Baby Elephant2

Jog actually guaranteed that we would see a tiger if we trekked with him for a week in the park. So strong was his guarantee that he promised that if we didn't see one during the week he would pay for our flight back home. You know when he told us this, during our first night here, I seriously considered his offer since I had about a week left in Nepal. How fantastic, or frightening, would it be to see a tiger here in the wild? But Mazen was quick to throw cold water on that idea. And realistically I may have been tight for time. So we stuck to our original plan in the end.

Our trek started out at the Elephant Breeding Centre as they called it. Basically, they have adult female elephants in captivity. They are in the open air but there is a lengthy chain securely fastened on one leg of the female elephant and the other end is attached to a sturdy looking post. The young are not on chains but there is a meagre fence that keeps them at bay. Some of the "older" looking young ones are actually on chains as well. Essentially the baby elephants are trained and brought up here.

Baby Elephant3

The young elephants are unbelievably adorable. But these babies don't know their own strength just yet I don't think. I recall walking down a street in this village and watching as a baby elephant come towards me. When we got closer it became apparent that the baby was barrelling in towards us! It didn't really start to worry me much as I figured it was just a young elephant but before we knew it the trainer got in front of this small elephant to try to guide it away from us and we found ourselves in the ditch trying to get out of its path. Afer all, even a young elephant can weigh more than the average human.

They don't have to keep any adult male elephants at the Elephant Breeding Centre because they come out of the wild to mate with the females before running back into the wild. It's quite the system the Nepalese have figured out here. Although sometimes it backfires on them as there have been occasions that a wild male elephant is able to free one of the females and just take her back to the wild.

Bringing down the house

One of these elephant shelters had it's roof pulled down and was almost destroyed. Apparently, this was caused by a male elephant during a passionate session with a captive female. Whether or not that was true it was irrelevant to me as it still made for a good story.

Old Rhino1

In any case, this was a great starting point for our trek and it was an interesting stop. What made it more fascinating was the stationary rhinocerous that was stationed just outside the Elephant Breeding Centre. The beast was just absolutely still (could have passed for a statue) and was simply standing there on the path minding its own business. She is quite often found doing just that right near these grounds. It turns out that this rhino is quite old and so it is dangerous for her to be in the jungle as she gets beaten up by other rhinos. She looked very battle-weary as her horn was missing and she had a massive scar on the left side of her body. So she has found a refuge among the humans here. I couldn't help feel sorry for her as it was almost like she had been exiled from her place in the jungle.

Old Rhino2

Old Rhino3

From here we would begin our quest into the forest but first there were a few ground rules that Jog wanted to make us aware of. We would have to walk in single file and Chitram would be in the lead and Jog would bring up the tail. Mazen and I would always walk in the middle of this line. Also we would have to walk as quietly as possible to hopefully not scare the animals away.

Additionally, he gave us specific advice on what to do in case we were chased by particular animals:

Rhinocerous - run in a zig-zag pattern or around trees as it is very difficult for it to follow, or alternatively climb a tree
Sloth bear - climb a tree, but the trunk can't bee too big otherwise the sloth bear may be able to climb it also
Wild elephant - don't look back, run like hell

Open Plains

Snake Skin

I don't know if it frightened me more that the only solution to an elephant in pursuit was to flat out run or that he didn't mention what to do in case a tiger was chasing us. Perhaps he felt that if that happened then we wouldn't stand a chance and maybe he would fling us at the beast to increase the chance of his own escape in haste?

After hungrily receiving all that advice, we followed Chitram into the forest with Jog close behind us. Almost immediately we heard what may have been a sloth bear or two very close to us. While I was busy trying to recall the action that we were supposed to take when being chased by one of these creatures, the sloth bears ran away themselves.

Slightly further on we came across a couple of wild boars on our path. Jog hadn't told us what to do in case we were chased by one of these and it was clear why. They are actually pretty small animals, well, in comparison to rhinos and sloth bears.

Tiger prints

The River

We were actually carrying big sticks with us and whenever we noticed a better stick we would trade up. These sticks were not walking sticks, in fact, they were to be used to fight off an animal if that became necessary. Jog told us that to hit a sloth bear it has to be an attack at the face. Hitting the torso would do nothing. If the situation were to occur, I certainly hope I would remember his suggestions while likely pissing my pants in fear.

As a matter of fact, that reminds of something else that Jog had told us as we were just entering the forest. He related to us instances when he was urinated on by tourists as he desperately tried to push these tourists up trees, out of harm's way, as a wild animal was bearing down on them. I looked at him to see if he was joking and but his face was deadly serious.

At one point we saw something that was obviously dead. It was small and furry but none of us really wanted to get a closer look but we assumed that it was a monkey. Old snake skin was something else that we spotted. I was quite relieved that we never came across the owner.

It was truly a beautiful hike even just observing the scenary. The day was filled with fighting our way through foilage, walking among tall trees, hiking along a path beside the river, or strolling through open plains. For a while we were even walking through grass (elephant grass) that was taller than us. This was particularly disconcerting as Jog had told us earlier that it was best not to walk in tall grass such as this because it is much more difficult to see the animals coming at you.

A common thing we did see were footprints. Footprints of all kinds of animals, many of them fresh, like leopards, sloth bears, deer, rhinos and even the elusive endangered tiger. The one type of footprint that I saw that gave me the most shivers were the ones left behind by elephants. These footprints were just massive. It almost had a Jurassic Park feel to it. Do I really want to come face-to-face with a wild elephant?

The animal that we saw the most of was deer. This would have been very exciting if deer were almost extinct or at the very least if they weren't so common place in Canada.

Crocodile

I think Jog was feeling bad that we weren't seeing as much as he or we hoped. At one point he even said "You know, I think you are very lucky to see tiger prints". But I think the time his "guilt" feeling was strongly apparent was when we spotted a crocodile and neither myself nor Mazen pulled out our camera. He then asked: "You guys want to take a picture or something?". Ok, as if it made him feel better I took a picture of it even though I had so many crocodile shots from the day before.

To be honest, I was not disappointed with the hike. It was seven hours of trekking through this park so that was incredible in itself. But also the various types of foilage were interesting on its own. I had really enjoyed the day. Besides, seeing wildlife is always very random. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you are not.

There was a false alarm at mid-day though. In the distance Jog saw something sticking its head out of the tall grass and quickly motioned us to come where he was positioned. He was convinced that it was very likely a tiger. We all stared out at it but realized rather quickly it was actually a man. He rolled his eyes at his own mistake.

Burden

Carrying Stuff

We walked out of the jungle, completely exhausted, as the sun was getting dim. We were pretty filthy and tired and although we didn't see as much wildlife as we hoped at least we didn't have to run from an animal in hot pursuit.

There are a few watchtowers located at least through this part of the park. They are very solidly constructed and are designed so that one can spend the night here and watch wildlife from the safety of these 3-storey high structures. The park is most active at night and so it is a popular activity to just stay up here and keep your eyes and ears open. This completely fascinated me and I would have loved to try this but again cold water got thrown on this idea. Also the best time to view animals from the watchtower is during a full moon of course. The moon was no where near full while we were here at the park so the watchtower will have to wait for a future visit.

Day 3 of our stay at Chitwan was over and tomorrow we will spend a few more hours here before catching our bus back to Kathmandu.