The Bardia National Park was initially a Royal hunting reserve. The park’s first name was Royal Karnali Wildlife Reserve with an area of only 368 km² (1976).
In 1982, it was renamed as Royal Bardia Wildlife Reserve. It has now included Babai River Valley also. It took up till 1988 before it gets the status of National Park. It’s the second national park of Nepal, but it’s not the major attraction as Chitwan.
In order to preserve the dwelling species of rare ecosystem, Bardia national park provides an excellent habitat for most of the endangered species of wildlife and birds, and covers the area of 968km² at the present time.
It takes about 1 hour by air and 516 km by road from Kathmandu to reach this national park. Jungle walk, Jeep safari and Canoe ride are the chief attractions of Bardia National Park.