Elephant locations in Nepal

56 locations has kept elephants in Nepal

There is presently 183 (51,107) living elephants in locations in Nepal in this database

Nepal
Region: Nepal is in this database included in asia
Wild elephants: Nepal has about 126 (min. 109, max. 142) wild elephants. Source:Pradhan et al. (2011)
Location holdings: 56 locations has kept 225 elephants in Nepal

(Database tables with collection of elephants further down on the page)
Elephants in locations183 (51,107) living 42 (15,17) dead


1914: A total of 17 captive elephants were released into the wild in 1914

1945-1970: 10 wild elephants were captured for taming during 1954-1970.

1973: capture of wild elephants became strictly prohibited.

Wild elephants


Many wild elephants migrate between India and Nepal, where rapidly rising human populations devastated lowland forest herds. Small herds have stabilised in protected reserves.

1996: population was estimated to 50-60 (Santiapillai, IUCN 1996).

2008: 100-170 (Sukumar 2008)

2011: 128 elephants. (Pradhan et al., 2011)

Captive elephants


Gaja or Prasad denotes a male, and Kali denotes a female elephant.

Phanit denotes an official driver and senior keeper, Pachuwa: assistant, and Mahut, 2nd assistant.

The Rana rulers established Hattisars (elephant stables) as part of their big game hunting exploits. Between 1898 and 1970 there were 31 such hattisars for captive elephants, stretching from Jhapa in east Nepal to Kanchanpur in far west Nepal. The last wild elephant was captured near Parsa in 1969

Government elephant stables are called sarkari hattisar.

2011: 236 registered captive elephants. (Locke, 2011)

2014: Nepal has about 150 captive elephants under both government and private individuals distributed in three locations such us the Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, Chitwan National Park, Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and Bardia National Park.
Surendra Varma, Suparna Ganguly (2011)

Other sources state: There are around 200 captive elephants in Nepal. Around 100 of them are owned by the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation and 100 by private institutions
Jeewan Thapa


Unlike the rhino, numbers of wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) have not rebounded, with approximately the same number of wild individuals (~150) as those held in captivity remaining (GoN, 2015).

Previous studies have indicated that at least 23% of the captive elephants in Sauraha carry tuberculosis, but due to difficulties with owner compliance regarding treatment, unreliable testing methods, and overall concern for the cost of treatment means that elephants remain undiagnosed and contagious (Gairhe, 2012; Mikota et al., 2015; see also Paudel & Sreevatsan, 2020). More than 12 captive elephants have died of tuberculosis since 2002 (Mandal & Khadka, 2013; Thapa, et. al, 2017, Szydlowski, 2021), yet infected individuals remain within shared spaces, increasing the risk of further transmission (Gairhe, 2012).
Michelle Szydlowski, Elephants in Nepal


Bardia


17 elephants have 41 handlers in the Bardia National Park. All the adult female elephants had been bought. Surendra Varma, Suparna Ganguly (2011)



Recommended Citation

Koehl, Dan, Facts about elephants in Nepal. Elephant Encyclopedia, (2024) available online retrieved 2024-10-07 at https://www.elephant.se/country.php?name=Nepal.
(archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources, among others


Internal relevant links



NameElephant collectionPlace
Amriti hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 2 elephants
, 1 present (1,0) 0 births1 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Baghmara hattisar (Baghmara Wildlife Resort)
(camp) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (1,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Bardia hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 5 elephants
, 4 present (0,2) 2 births0 relocated1 deathsBardia
(map)
Bardia National Park (BNP)
(wild) Kept totally 7 elephants
, 3 present (3,0) 7 births1 relocated3 deathsBardia
(map) Southwest Nepal
Belsar hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 2 elephants
, 2 present (1,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Bikash Mishra
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsRatnanagarChitwan District
Biratnagar Hattisar (Sunsari hattisar)
(camp) Kept totally 0 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsSunsari
(map)Sunsari District Province No. 1 Outer Terai
Chitwan Forest Resort
(camp) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Chitwan Island Jungle Resort
(private) Kept totally 4 elephants
, 3 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated1 deaths
(map)Chitwan District
Chitwan Jungle Villa Resort
(private) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deaths
(map)Chitwan District
Chitwan National Park (CNP)
(wild) Kept totally 5 elephants
, 4 present (3,1) 2 births0 relocated1 deathsKasara, Chitwan
(map)Chitwan District
Chitwan Sapana Village Lodge
(private) Kept totally 6 elephants
, 6 present (1,5) 1 births0 relocated0 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Dibyapuri hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births2 relocated0 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Eco Adventure Resort
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsRatnanagar
(map)Chitwan District
Gadini outpost
(camp) Kept totally 2 elephants
, 2 present (0,2) 0 births0 relocated0 deaths
Ghidenighat hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (2,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Giddeni elephant camp
(camp) Kept totally 0 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsBharatpur
Happy House (Om Rijal)
(private) Kept totally 4 elephants
, 2 present (0,2) 0 births0 relocated2 deathsBaratpur
Holiday Safari
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated1 deathsSaurahaChitwan District
Hotel Jungle Vista
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deaths
(map)Chitwan District
Hotel Parkland
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births1 relocated0 deathsRatnanagar
(map)Chitwan District
Hotel Wildlife Camp
(private) Kept totally 2 elephants
, 2 present (0,2) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsRatnanagar
(map)Chitwan District
Jung Bahadur Rana (Bir Narsingh Kunwar)
(private) Kept totally 4 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births1 relocated3 deathsKathmandu
(map)
Jungle Safari Resort
(private) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (0,3) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsSaurahaChitwan District
Jungle Wildlife Camp
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsRatnanagar
(map)Chitwan District
Jungle World Resort
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births1 relocated0 deathsBharatpur
Kanchanpur hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 0 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsKanchanpur
(map)Banke District Bheri Zone south-western Nepal
Kasara hattisar (Kasara Resort, Chitwan)
(camp) Kept totally 6 elephants
, 6 present (1,4) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Kathmandu Central Zoo
(zoo) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsKathmandu, Bagmati
(map)
Khachhuwani hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 1 present (1,0) 0 births0 relocated2 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Khoryahoman hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (2,1) 1 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National ParkChitwan District
King Birendra of Nepal
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births1 relocated0 deathsKathmandu
(map)
Koshi Tappu Hattisar (KTWR)
(camp) Kept totally 23 elephants
, 15 present (3,11) 11 births4 relocated4 deathsRajbiraj
(map) Province No. 2 Terai, southeastern Nepal
Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR)
(wild) Kept totally 2 elephants
, 1 present (1,0) 1 births0 relocated1 deathsBairawa
(map) Eastern Nepal
Kujauli hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 2 elephants
, 2 present (1,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan District
Lamichaure hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (2,1) 1 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Machan Wildlife Resort
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births1 relocated0 deathsNawalparasi
(map)Chitwan District
Meghauli hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 5 elephants
, 5 present (2,3) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map)Chitwan District
Narayanhiti Palace
(private) Kept totally 0 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsKathmandu
(map)
Nature Safari Camp
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsSaurahaChitwan District
Nepal unspecified location
() Kept totally 19 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 2 births19 relocated0 deaths
NTNC-Biodiversity Conservation Center
(camp) Kept totally 6 elephants
, 4 present (2,2) 2 births0 relocated2 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Parsa Hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 11 elephants
, 11 present (1,4) 1 births0 relocated0 deathsNarayanghat
(map)Parsa District Province No. 2 southeastern Nepal
Rainbow Safari Resort
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deaths
(map)
Rhino Lodge and Hotel
(private) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (0,2) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsRatnanagar
(map)Chitwan District
River Bank Inn
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Safaris Barahi Jungle Lodge
(private) Kept totally 4 elephants
, 4 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deaths
(map)Chitwan District
Sauraha elephant breeding centre
(camp) Kept totally 89 elephants
, 51 present (19,29) 51 births25 relocated13 deathsBharatpur
(map)Chitwan District
Sauraha unspecified location
(camp) Kept totally 6 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 1 births3 relocated2 deathsSauraha
(map)Chitwan District
Siswar elephant camp
(camp) Kept totally 0 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsBharatpur Central Terai of Nepal
Sukibhar hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (0,3) 1 births0 relocated0 deathsChitwan National Park
(map) Chitwan District
Suklaphanta hattisar
(camp) Kept totally 8 elephants
, 6 present (3,3) 2 births0 relocated2 deaths
(map)
Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge
(camp) Kept totally 14 elephants
, 0 present (0,0) 2 births12 relocated2 deathsChitwan
(map)Chitwan District
Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge (Bardia)
(camp) Kept totally 3 elephants
, 3 present (0,3) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsBardia
(map)
Tiger Tops Tharu Lodge
(camp) Kept totally 14 elephants
, 11 present (1,10) 0 births1 relocated2 deaths
(map)Chitwan District
Traveller Jungle Camp
(private) Kept totally 1 elephants
, 1 present (0,1) 0 births0 relocated0 deathsRatnanagar
(map)Chitwan District