Banke National Park, one of the youngest national parks in Nepal is starting jungle safari for tourists visiting the park from Saturday. Once the new tourism product is launched, tourists visiting the park will be able to enjoy the diversity of the flora and fauna from the back of an elephant and a jeep. 

The park office is planning to raise 10 elephants for the safari. It has already brought four elephants and six more are on the way. “We have also completed the construction of 150-km long jungle trail for the safari,” said Purja Magar, chief conservation officer of the park. “We have completed other infrastructure required to launch the safari.”

Domestic tourists will have to pay Rs500 per hour for a jungle tour on elephant back. Likewise, tourists from Saarc and other countries will have to pay Rs1500 and Rs2500 respectively per hour for an elephant ride.

The national park is also launching a number of other tourism products including boat ride on the Babai and Rapti Rivers flowing through the park. Currently, the park is constructing watch towers at various locations within the park for visitors willing spend the night in the park to watch various animals.

According to Lal Bahadur Bhandari, assistant conservation officer of the national park, visitors are more likely to spend the night within the park to catch a glimpse of wild animals that are generally more active once the sun goes down.

Domestic tourists will have to pay Rs100 per night while tourists from Saarc countries and other countries will have to shell out Rs500 and Rs1000 respectively.

Banke National Park, the home of the royal Bengal tiger, initiated the development of various tourism products and infrastructure to promote it as a “tiger zone.” The national park authorities, in a bid to increase the flow of domestic and foreign tourists, are developing various blocks dedicated to offering different tourism products. The Ovari area of the park has been developed for the jungle drive and jungle walk. Likewise, it has developed Dhakeri area as a block dedicated to elephant safari.

The national park is offering hospitality training to locals that plan to operate a home stay business. It is also training them as guides and drivers, making them able to deliver tourism services like jungle safari and jungle walk. Banke National Park was established seven years ago, with an aim to develop it as tiger zone. The park is home to 13 tigers, wild elephants, deer and spotted deer among other.