National Park advanced into the third round after Tuesday´s 12-8 victory over EFG of Switzerland in the league match, following an impressive start a day ago. [break]
Defending champions National Park, who had registered a thumping 10-5 victory over British Gurkha of England on Monday, are the title favorites this time too.
Former conservation officer of the Chitwan National Park, Ramprit Yadav led the Nepali team.
In another match of the day, Tiger Tops Tuskers of Iceland defeated Afghanistan´s Afghani Fentaz 7-3 to advance into the next round.
British Gurkha edged out Great Britain´s Pukka Chakka 3-2. The last match of the day played between Sepoys of the UAE and Chivas Regal of Scotland ended in a 6-6 draw.
League matches will continue on Wednesday as well. National Park will face Pukka Chakka while Tuskers will take on Sepoys. Likewise, British Gurkha are pitted against EFG and Chivas will compete with Afghani Fentaz in Wednesday´s other matches.
Altogether eight teams from Nepal, Iceland, England, Scotland, the UAE, Switzerland and Afghanistan are participating in the tournament held every year in Nepal. The final will be held on Friday, according to the organizing committee´s Yadav Bantawa.
Twenty elephants, ten each from the Chitwan National Park and Tiger Tops, were used in the matches. It is believed that elephant polo developed from horse polo.
The game was initiated by the Tiger Tops hotel for its foreign guests and later it became renowned worldwide. The tournament that started in 1981 has been a support for promotion of tourism in Meghauli.
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