September 15: Chitwan National Park is preparing to mark its golden jubilee on September 20. Next week, the popular national park of Nepal steps on the 50^th year since its established on September 20, 1973.

The national park is planning to organize various programmes throughout the year to mark its golden jubilee. The inauguration of the golden jubilee celebration will be held at Kasara within the premises of the national park, informed Ganesh Prasad Tiwari, information officer of the park.

The national park will launch a journal on the occasion of the golden jubilee. There are also plans to unveil a golden pillar and organize a programme to display the cultures of Bote, Kumal, Tharu, Gurung, Magar, Tamang, Daire and other ethnic communities that live in the buffer zone of the national park.

The Chitwan National Park is spread over an area of 952.63 square kilometers. This park was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is famed for its rich flora and fauna including rhinocero, the Royal Bengal Tiger, bison, sloth bear, leopard, barking deer, spotted deer, sambar deer, monkey, langur, laguna among 60 species of mammals found in this park.

Visitors can also find alligators and crocodiles as well as pythons and around 540 species of resident and migratory birds in this national park.

According to Chief Conservation Officer of the national park Hari Bhadra Acharya, the Sal tree (Shorea Robusta) makes up 70 percent of the forest area of the national park.  

The Chitwan National Park was listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site for the role it played in protection of these diverse flora and fauna including some endangered wild animals.

Due to the conservation of endangered animals, the number of Royal Bengal Tiger in the national park has reached 128 while the number of rhinoceros has climbed to 694. None of the rhinos in the national park have been killed in poaching incidents in the last one year.

This national park falls in Bagmati Province, Madhes Province and Gandaki Province. There is one metropolitan city, eight municipalities and three rural municipalities within the national park area. More than 250000 people live in the those local units. Fifty percent of the revenue collected by the national park is spent on conservation of the buffer zone as well as for the education and infrastructure of the people living in the buffer zone.

The National Park Office informed the state-owned RSS that more than Rs 1 billion has been spent on the buffer zone so far. Chairman of the CNP Buffer Zone Management Committee Prakash Dhungana says that the establishment of the buffer zone some two and a half decades ago has helped in reducing the human-wildlife conflict and preservation of the flora and fauna. He said that the people living in buffer zone are facing problems due to the outdated laws and urged the concerned bodies to address this issue by amending the laws.