Weekly Travel Feature

Tiger Tops in Nepal Back in Business

Prepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International

There is good news from Nepal. The famous Tiger Tops is once again open for business, having been closed by the new government until park leases were re-negotiated.

Last fall I had the good fortune of being invited to visit Tiger Tops. I set out to explore the two largest wildlife reserves in the country, Chitwan and Barida in the west, both inhabited by the indigenous Tharu people. Not so long ago, the two parks were once called the Royal Chitwan National Park and the Royal Bardia National Park. The overthrow of the royal family in Nepal changed all that.

Prior to the 1950's, there were only a few scattered settlements carved out of the jungle by the Tharu. Chitwan was completely wild and used as the hunting preserve of the Rana Prime Ministers, who then ruled Nepal. They organised great hunts, to which they often invited the Viceroys of India or the Royalty of Europe.

We hear so much about the Terai, but what is it?

The Terai is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas and forests lying at the base of the Himalaya range––not only in Nepal but in India and Bhutan as well. The Terai zone is basically an ecosystem of savanna and wetlands, of tall grasslands and evergreen forests. The grasslands are among the tallest in the world. This area is home to the endangered one-horned rhinoceros as well as elephants, tigers, bears, leopards and other wild animals. Much of the ecoregion has been converted to farmland but, thanks to the Chitwan National Park and the Bardia National Park, these areas are home to some of the greatest concentrations of rhinoceros and tiger remaining in South Asia.

On my visit I could not enter the major Chitwan park area, only the fringe areas, as the new government had closed the parks. Rather than continuing to fight the Maoist rebels, a war that lasted for many long years, the Nepalese government invited the rebels to join them. Once united, the Maoists took charge and decided to close the national parks until a new lease with the concession operators, like Tiger Tops, was re-negotiated. Today Tiger Tops, considered the pioneer wildlife-safari lodge in South Asia, signed that new lease with the Department of National Parks of Nepal. After a six month hiatus when all seven lodges, operating inside Nepal’s premier Chitwan National Park, had their operations suspended at lease expiry, Tiger Tops is now back in business. The new lease runs to July 2012 covering the important period of Nepal Tourism Year 2011. Tiger Tops welcomed the tighter environmental management clauses in the new lease. The company acknowledges the support of the Hon. Minister of Forests, Mr. Deepak Bohara, and the Secretary, Ministry of Forests, Mr. Yuba Raj Bhushal. Founded in 1964, Tiger Tops has been a tourism icon for this Himalayan nation and was the first tourism product focusing on the wealth and diversity of Nepal’s lowland area, the Terai. Tiger Tops pre-dates Chitwan National Park that was only established in 1973 and the company actively lobbied for the establishment of the park. Chitwan is a conservation success story for Nepal and is a world model of participatory conservation initiatives. Tiger Tops has developed the standards for responsible conservation tourism in Nepal’s lowland protected areas and operates to strict environmental and social guidelines. Tiger Tops has strong partnerships with leading researchers, local and international charitable and conservation organisations and works to enhance standards for responsible conservation tourism. Tiger Tops naturalists are the only tourism staff in Nepal to pass a rigorous examination to be accorded the title Naturalist. They support and lead a range of social and environmental projects, including the International Trust for Nature Conservation’s “Long-term Tiger Monitoring Project” under the leadership of Dr. Charles McDougal PhD, who has been studying the tiger population of western Chitwan for over 25 years, yielding rich data on tiger ecology. Bardia National Park in the west, until recently, was the Royal Bardia National Park and on most maps and travel brochures it still goes by that name. Although the park was closed when I was there, I had a pleasant stay Karnali Lodge and the Karnali Tented Camp since they were located on the fringe of the park and not within it.

The park was gazetted in 1976 as the Royal Kamali Wildlife Reserve. In 1984 it was extended on its eastern border bringing the reserve to 968 sq. km (374 sq. miles). This became Royal Bardia National Park in 1988. Today it’s simply the Bardia National Park.

The Geruwa River, the eastern branch of the great Karnali River, diverges into two main channels and many islands, forming the park's western boundary. The park extends east to the Nepalganj-Surkhet road and includes a large portion of the beautiful Babai River Valley, bounded by two parallel ranges of the Siwalik Hills.
Tiger Mountain operates the only concessions in Bardia: the Karnali Lodge, set amid the fascinating Tharu villages on the edge of the forest, and the Karnali Tented Camp on the banks of the river downstream from Chisapani. Several simple, native-style lodges are clustered around the park headquarters at Thakurdwara. Most visitors fly to Nepalganj, one-and-a-half hours from Kathmandu, then make the three-hour drive to the park. I made the drive from Chitwan all the way to Bardia by local bus in 10 hours through memorable and scenic stretches of the Terai.

The main appeal of Royal Bardia National Park is that it’s one of the best places on the subcontinent to see the Royal Bengal tiger in the wild. West Nepal supports the kingdom's second largest population of this magnificent cat after Chitwan. It is thought that around 50 breeding adults are distributed from Banke through Bardia and Kailai into Kanchanpur. A few leopards live on the forest edges.

The Kamali Lodge came as an unexpected surprise, actually a cultural experience. It was built appropriately from local materials––elephant grass reeds plastered over with a mixture of mud and cow dung––decorated in the style of the Tharu native villages. It blends in perfectly with its surroundings. It has twelve double-room native huts with attached bathrooms. Beds are draped with mosquito nets. The central dining area with its high vaulted ceiling is the main attraction where everyone gathers, except for breakfast. The morning meal is served on the lawn facing the lodge.

Tiger Tops is happy for its staff of over 300 that the company can resume its operations and display their dedication and superb standards of service to tourists from around the world. In spite of the closure for 6 months, the staff has all been retained on full pay. We have to thank them for their patience.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

I receive some interesting e-mail. This one is from a young American who is living in Qingdao, China, where I spent much of my youth––except it was call Tsingtao then. He is a college student and I have to admire him.

Q. Dear Mr. Stephens. Your Royal Orchid Holidays stories are inspiring, even here in China. I started my own one-man travel company. As far as www.qingdaossadventures.com goes, business is not bad.  I started it up just before the Beijing Olympics, and was immediately surprised by the potential, however, I will also be a fulltime grad student starting in March but am still planning to keep it going. Most of my tours thus far have consisted of taking tourists and long term residents of Qingdao on hikes to Laoshan mountain, historical tours of the ‘Old Town’, camping on outlying islands, and a bit of rock climbing. Recently I have also begun to work with international schools from across China to provide fun, adventuresome and educational trips.
If you know anyone travelling this way. Can you suggest my company? I made a good travel guide, and I am not expensive.
Marcus Murphy e-mail: murphmarc@gmail.com

A. Dear Marcus. Keep up the good work and I wish you success. I will help and recommend you to those who are travelling to Qingdao. Who knows, I may be one of your customers. I would love to revisit old Tsingtao, and hike in the Laoshan Mountains. We couldn’t do that when I was there. Japanese soldiers who refused to give up when the war ended hid out in the mountains.

Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.