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With Chitwan becoming increasingly mass-market, BARDIA NATIONAL PARK , northwest of Nepalganj, beckons as an unspoiled alternative. Hard to get to and still barely developed, it's the largest area of undisturbed wilderness left in the Tarai. Budget lodging is available, but there's nothing like the commercialism of Sauraha here. Indeed, if this section oversells the comparisons with Chitwan, it's because Bardia has everything Chitwan has - except Sauraha. As the word gets out about Bardia, transport connections may get easier and facilities cushier, but its distance from Kathmandu should shield it from the masses for many years to come. In 1996-97 (the most recent year for which figures are available), 96,000 people visited Chitwan National Park, while just 1600 visited Bardia. Ecologically, Bardia spans an even greater range of habitats than Chitwan, from thick riverine forest and sal stands to phanta (isolated pockets of savannah) and dry upland slopes. The Geruwa , a branch of the awesome Karnali River , forms the park's western boundary and major watering hole, and the density of wildlife and birds along this western edge is as great as anywhere in Asia. The less accessible eastern portion of the park is drained by the Babai River , which forms a sanctuary-like dun valley teeming with game. Like Chitwan, Bardia is widely hailed as a conservation success story. Rhinos , hunted to extinction here earlier this century, were reintroduced in the mid-1980s and now number about 45 individuals - still not nearly as many as in Chitwan, but enough for most visitors to see one. Tigers are also on the increase: 42 are known to inhabit the park, but officials think the actual number is closer to 70. Because of Bardia's remoteness and minimal human disturbance, tiger experts regard it as the most promising place in Nepal in which to maintain a viable breeding population, and to that end the World Wildlife Fund has recommended extending the park westwards to increase its area by 60 percent, which would make it the biggest tiger reserve in the world. For the same reasons, Bardia has also become an important sanctuary for migratory wild elephants of western Nepal and adjacent portions of India, and as many as sixty animals spend at least part of the year here. One of them, a docile tusker known to locals as Raja Gaj, stands 11 feet 3 inches (3.4m) at the shoulder and is believed to be the biggest Asian elephant alive. The Karnali/Geruwa is probably the best place in Nepal to get a peep at rare gangetic dolphins , which favour the river's deep channels, and to fish for huge mahseer . Mugger (and, increasingly, gharial) crocodiles can also be spotted in winter. Five species of deer - spotted, sambar, hog, barking and swamp - can be seen in abundance, along with langurs and wild pig . Nilgai ("blue bull"), bovine-looking members of the antelope family, roam the drier upland areas, while graceful, corkscrew-horned blackbuck (featured on the back of Nepal's ten-rupee note) graze an area south of the park. More elusive are sloth bear, leopard and other nocturnal creatures, as well as the endangered hispid hare, which survives in Bardia's grasslands. The park is also home to nearly 400 bird species, three of which - the Bengal florican, the lesser florican and the sarus crane - are endangered. The commonest sight of all around Bardia are termite mounds , looking like sand-coloured volcanoes, which reach their greatest height - up to 2.5m - in the sal forest here.
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