BARDIYA: With the rise in the population of spotted tiger, the inflow of tourists to Bardiya National Park, has increased. Bardiya is being developed as a synonymous to tiger of late.

Ashok Bhandari, assistant conservation officer of the national park, confirmed that the flow of visitors coming here to observe tiger and other endangered wild species has abruptly gone up. “Most of the tourists come here to see tiger”, Bhandari said, adding, “Especially tigers are visible in the hot season as the beast comes outside for quenching water thirst”.

As many as 22,000 tourists, including those from Nepal, foreign countries and SAARC nations have visited Bardiya National Park in the past 10 months. According to the latest information, Bardiya National Park has a total 87 spotted tigers.

It may be noted that the tourism fair held in Berlin had declared Bardiya National Park as the first natural destination of Asia.