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| lat_d = 27 | lat_m = 30 | lat_s = 0 | lat_NS = N | long_d = 84 | long_m = 20 | long_s = 0 | long_EW = E | area = 932 km² | established = 1973 | visitation_num = | visitation_year = }} Chitwan National Park ((ネパール語:चितवन राष्ट्रिय निकुञ्ज); formerly Royal Chitwan National Park) is the first national park in Nepal. It was established in 1973 and granted the status of a World Heritage Site in 1984. It covers an area of and is located in the subtropical Inner Terai lowlands of south-central Nepal in the districts of Nawalparasi, Chitwan and Makwanpur. In altitude it ranges from about in the river valleys to in the Churia Hills.〔Bhuju, U. R., Shakya, P. R., Basnet, T. B., Shrestha, S. (2007). (''Nepal Biodiversity Resource Book. Protected Areas, Ramsar Sites, and World Heritage Sites.'' ) International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, in cooperation with United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Kathmandu, ISBN 978-92-9115-033-5〕 In the north and west of the protected area the Narayani-Rapti river system forms a natural boundary to human settlements. Adjacent to the east of Chitwan National Park is Parsa Wildlife Reserve, contiguous in the south is the Indian Tiger Reserve Valmiki National Park. The coherent protected area of represents the ''Tiger Conservation Unit (TCU) Chitwan-Parsa-Valmiki'', which covers a huge block of alluvial grasslands and subtropical moist deciduous forests.〔Wikramanayake, E.D., Dinerstein, E., Robinson, J.G., Karanth, K.U., Rabinowitz, A., Olson, D., Mathew, T., Hedao, P., Connor, M., Hemley, G., Bolze, D. (1999) (''Where can tigers live in the future? A framework for identifying high-priority areas for the conservation of tigers in the wild.'' ) In: Seidensticker, J., Christie, S., Jackson, P. (eds.) ''Riding the Tiger. Tiger Conservation in human-dominated landscapes.'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. hardback ISBN 0-521-64057-1, paperback ISBN 0-521-64835-1.〕 ==History== Since the end of the 19th century Chitwan – ''Heart of the Jungle'' – used to be a favorite hunting ground for Nepal’s ruling class during the cool winter seasons. Until the 1950s, the journey from Kathmandu to Nepal’s south was arduous as the area could only be reached by foot and took several weeks. Comfortable camps were set up for the feudal big game hunters and their entourage, where they stayed for a couple of months shooting hundreds of tigers, rhinocerosses, leopards and sloth bears.〔Gurung, K. K. (1983). ''Heart of the Jungle: the Wildlife of Chitwan, Nepal''. André Deutsch, London.〕 In 1950, Chitwan’s forest and grasslands extended over more than and was home to about 800 rhinos. When poor farmers from the mid-hills moved to the Chitwan Valley in search of arable land, the area was subsequently opened for settlement, and poaching of wildlife became rampant. In 1957, the country's first conservation law inured to the protection of rhinos and their habitat. In 1959, Edward Pritchard Gee undertook a survey of the area, recommended creation of a protected area north of the Rapti River and of a wildlife sanctuary south of the river for a trial period of ten years.〔Gee, E. P. (1959). ''Report on a survey of the rhinoceros area of Nepal''. Oryx 5: 67–76.〕 After his subsequent survey of Chitwan in 1963, this time for both the Fauna Preservation Society and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, he recommended extension of the sanctuary to the south.〔Gee, E. P. (1963). ''Report on a brief survey of the wildlife resources of Nepal, including rhinoceros''. Oryx 7: 67–76.〕 By the end of the 1960s, 70% of Chitwan’s jungles were cleared using DDT, thousands of people had settled there, and only 95 rhinos remained. The dramatic decline of the rhino population and the extent of poaching prompted the government to institute the ''Gaida Gasti'' – a rhino reconnaissance patrol of 130 armed men and a network of guard posts all over Chitwan. To prevent the extinction of rhinos the Chitwan National Park was gazetted in December 1970, with borders delineated the following year and established in 1973, initially encompassing an area of .〔Adhikari, T. R. (2002). (''The curse of success''. ) Habitat Himalaya - A Resources Himalaya Factfile, Volume IX, Number 3.〕 In 1977, the park was enlarged to its present area of . In 1997, a bufferzone of was added to the north and west of the Narayani-Rapti river system, and between the south-eastern boundary of the park and the international border to India.〔 The park’s headquarters is in Kasara. Close-by the Gharial and Turtle Conservation Breeding Centres have been established. In 2008, a vulture breeding centre was inaugurated aiming at holding up to 25 pairs of each of the two ''Gyps'' vultures species now critically endangered in Nepal - the Oriental white-backed vulture and the slender-billed vulture. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chitwan National Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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