Wildlife Conservation: Nepal’s Elephant Fest 2017 Begins

Nepal’s most famous annual Elephant Festival 2017 began in Nepal’s domestic tourism destination Chitwan on December 26, 2017 with the participation of over 50 elephants.

The 14^th edition of this annual five-day event features elephant football, elephant bath, elephant walk, elephant picnic and elephant beauty contest, among others. Elephant picnic was added to the show three years ago.

” We have been organizing this festival to enhance human-wildlife relation by engaging them into sports and fun, and to promote Chitwan tourism. All our games and activities will revolve around elephants,” says Festival Coordinator Suman Ghimire Ghimire.

Besides elephant games, the event also showcases ethnic dances, cultural procession and musical programs with stalls covering wide varieties of local foods.

This festival is aimed at boosting Nepal tourism and promoting wild life conservation, and attracts hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists to Chitwan every year.

It is noteworthy that Chitwan National Park is famous for various endangered species like one-horned rhinos, and elephant safari is one of the major attractions of the park.

Despite of its position as a pioneer for elephant games, Chitwan lags proper reputation as that of other domestic tourism destinations like Pokhara and Kathmandu, say Nepali tourism entrepreneurs.

“Around 800,000 foreign tourists visit Nepal annually, but unfortunately Chitwan receives only 25 percent of them. We believe such festivals will attract more foreign tourists towards wildlife adventure,” Keshav Pandey, Director at Green Park Chitwan resort.

The event lasts till December 30, 2017.