Brief History of Chitwan Valley

Part of the Tarai region that extends along the base of the Himalayan foothills from Northern India through Bhutan, Chitwan Valley was once a vibrant ecosystem of dense jungle, grasslands, and marshes.  Resistant to malaria, the indigenous Tharu farmed, fished, and hunted here.

Farmers from the hills began moving to Chitwan Valley in the 1950s when the government sprayed DDT to eliminate mosquitoes.  The population as well as road, towns, houses grew rapidly.  Except for Chitwan National Park and a few other reserves, the native forests and grasslands mostly disappeared.  Small farms proliferated.

By 1993, agriculture in Chitwan as in much of the world, faced a crisis.  Taking advantage of flat land and irrigation, farmers made Chitwan a breadbasket of Nepal.  But like farmers participating in “green revolutions” throughout the world, they gained their high yields through chemical fertilizers, pesticides, mechanization, hybrid seeds, and borrowed money.  Over time, farmers fell into debt, grew only a narrow range of grain crops, and increasingly relied on income from wages and salaries.  Ironically, many grew grain to sell but had insufficient food for their own families.  And like the farmers, the soil lost its self-sufficiency and became more and more dependent on expensive fertilizers.  Young people left in droves to work in low wage jobs in cities or overseas.