Chitwan Elephant fest slated to start Dec 26

Chitwan Elephant fest slated to start Dec 26

The 11th edition of the Chitwan Elephant Festival is scheduled to be held in Sauraha from December 26-30 on the occasion of Christmas and New Year 2015.

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The festival is aimed at promoting tourism and spreading awareness about wildlife preservation, said Suman Ghimire, coordinator of the event. It started in 2004 as an international elephant race and since then it has been celebrated as a festival.

The organizer said that a picnic would also be organized for the elephants this year. “Wildlife is our asset and it should be preserved well,” said Ghimire. Another objective of the festival is to encourage tourists to remain in Nepal through the Christmas and the New Year holidays as most of them return to their own countries for the celebrations. The holiday season is also a lean period for Nepal tourism as arrivals start dropping from mid-December. “The festival is targeted at increasing tourist numbers,” said Gyanendra Kumar Bista, president of Regional Hotel Association Nepal in Chitwan. “Such events will also help create awareness to preserve wildlife.”

Hotels and restaurants offer discounts and serve distinct varieties of foods for visitors. Local hotels and restaurants are normally packed with domestic and international tourists during this time. Around 20 elephants compete in a 150-metre race. Likewise, elephant calves play football while an elephant beauty competition is also held which has become one of the major attractions at the tourist hotspot. The event has been successful in promoting tourism in past years. “This is why we have been continuing the festival,” said Deepak Bhattarai, second vice-president of the association. Apart from foreign visitors, the festival has been attracting huge numbers of domestic visitors. Sauraha has more than 100 hotels and all of them are packed during the festival. The jungle safari destination of Sauraha has not only seen an aggressive development of hotels and resorts over the past few years, entrepreneurs have also been making large investments in elephants to carry tourists on sightseeing tours in the jungle.

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Around Rs 330 million has been spent on rearing elephants. The jumbos have become an integral part of tour packages of the hotels and resorts here.

Situated in the lush tropical plains of southern Nepal, Sauraha attracts safari goers with its rich wildlife and thick jungles. There are 51 elephants owned by hoteliers and cooperatives in Sauraha .

Source: Ekantipur

Highest number of tourists visits CNP in fiscal year 2070-71 BS

Highest number of tourists visits CNP in fiscal year 2070-71 BS

The highest number of tourists visited the Chitwan National Park (CNP) in the last fiscal year 2070-71 BS.

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A total of 173,000 domestic and foreign tourists visited the Chitwan National Park during the period, which was the highest number of the tourists visiting the park so far, said Park Spokesperson, Tikaram Poudel.

According to the Park, number of foreign tourists visiting the Park has increased remarkably.

The Park collected Rs 246.8 million in revenue in the fiscal year 2070-71 BS against Rs 211.5 million in revenue in the previous fiscal year 2069-70 BS. A total of 153,000 tourists had visited the Park in the previous year. Poudel said that the revenue collected in the last fiscal year was more by 35.3 million than the revenue collected in the fiscal year 2069-70 BS. As per the statistics provided by the Park, a total of 170,000 tourists had visited the park in the fiscal year 2068-69 BS.

Chitwan National Park

Assistant Conservation officer at the Park, Bishnu Thapaliya, said that the Park has fixed Rs 750 for tourists from SAARC countries, Rs 100 for domestic tourists and Rs 1,500 for tourists from the third world countries as entre fee.

The Park collects a large sum of money from entrée fee. It has elephant and crocodile breeding centres.

Source: myrepublica