Royal Chitwan National Park

Royal Chitwan National Park was the first national park of Nepal, officially declared in 1973. This National Park includes the rugged Churia hills, sal forests, grasslands and riverine forests including swamps and lakes made by changing river courses. These conditions provide excellent habitats for an unusually rich variety of large mamals.

There are more than thirty species of mamals including elephants and the Gangetic dolphin, above 300 varieties of birds, including both migratory and residential waterfowl can be seen on clear days. Some exceptionally exclusive animals including several species of deer, the the Royal Bengal Tiger, the one horned rhino, and the Gharial Crocodiles roam in their natural habitat. Visitors have the choice of jeeps or on elephant backs for game-viewing and jungle tours. Royal Chitwan National Park and the Sagarmatha (Everest) national park are listed as World Heritage sites.

Devghat

Devghat lies in the dense forest of Chitwan, and is inside the Royal Chitwan National Park. It is a popular pilgrimage spot situated where the two glacier rivers Kali Gandaki and Trisuli meet. Once a year, Hindus from all over the world come here to take holy dips into the river. The reason I like Devghat is because I and my cousin used to go there and look for really neat fossil stones on the river banks that looked as if the rivers carved the stones into really good images. There are also short trekking places in Devghat and one can enjoy the freshness and the purity of the glacier rivers which are so clean that lot of people including myself used to drink water right off the river as is.