“B
uttered popcorn,” Baburam says with a smile. “Tiger poo.” He searches the air with his nose, wafting the scent toward his face. He nearly stumbles on a pawprint – softly made, less than an hour old. “If you see a rhino, you are lucky,” says Baburam Mahato, my guide through Chitwan National Park from Kasara Resort. “A tiger? Very, very lucky.” For most, Nepal conjures to mind the snow-capped Himalayas and the colorful culture of Kathmandu, but in places like Chitwan and
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Bardia, tigers, rhinos, deer, and leopards wander the warm forest mornings. Chitwan has made its way onto the tourist trail, part of the Kathmandu and Pokhara circuit, with Chitwan as a stopover before or after Annapurna. Most make their way to the elephant bathing and Tharu village visit before catching sight of crocs via canoe and a short jeep safari into the jungle. Whether or not one sees a rhino is on luck and the seasons, but for nature lovers there is much to see throughout. For those travelers, it’s possible to spend all day in a jeep or
on foot looking for the most incredible creatures in Asia. Guide and tracker with Kasara Resort, Baburam, is a member of the local Tharu tribe, an ethnic group known for their relative immunity to malaria, mud plaster houses, tattoos, and, in this Chitwan locale, their free growing marijuana. Most live in subsistence conditions in and around the Terai region and bordering India. “I didn’t have the chance for higher education,” Baburam says. “So I went to Dubai. I got a loan from the bank and I went to Dubai to be an office boy.” Working his way up through
