November 4, 2011 Our next stop was Chitwan National Park, which is approximately 932 Km2 and has an additional buffer zone around the park of nearly 750 Km2 where local villagers live abutting the park. Chitwan was declared a National Park in 1973 and is considered one of the premier national parks in Nepal. In 1984 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home the largest population of Greater One-Horned Rhinos outside of Kaziranga National Park with numbers of around 503 individuals which is 94% of the 534 total Greater One Horned Rhinos in all of Nepal.  While in Chitwan National Park we visited with a number of people and programs in and around the park. We also visited with the rangers who patrol the park and surrounding buffer zone.  We presented shirts and backpacks from the Denver Zoo to the rangers while visiting their headquarters.

Within Chitwan National Park and the surrounding buffer zone, patrols by rangers are done almost exclusively on elephant back. Because of this, there is a large support structure for the maintenance of the elephants including a breeding facility just outside of the park. This portion of the rhino protection at Chitwan is an expensive venture for the government to support. Additionally, there is a community forest that juts out from the northwest section of the park that rhinos regularly move into and out of. This was in fact were we saw our first Greater One Horned Rhino while in the area! The rhino was located within a "buffer zone" around the park. The buffer zone is an area around the park that, for people who reside within it, are provided 50% of the revenue that the park generates from ecotourism. This community effort was developed to help the local residents have buy in for conservation within the park and to encourage protection so that ecotourism will continue within the park.