Bandhavgarh tree house accommodation in India

Community
We are not an NGO or a non- profit organisation. We believe that conservation of wild habitats and wildlife in India is only possible if it has an economic incentive. Through our Conservation Cell we are developing programs that will directly involve the locals and benefit them. We believe that carefully developed natural resource based enterprise development programs involving the locals will reduce their direct dependence on the wild habitats. Thus we plan to introduce a list of programs that will encourage the locals to conserve the nature for their own and their children's future.

We conduct an intensive annual training program for our lodge naturalists and staff during the off season monsoon period. The training includes wildlife observation skills, communication skills, recording and documenting observations, activities of the Conservation Cell and others. From this year onwards we plan to increase this effort to at least 2 training programs per year. Over and above this all the lodge staff participate in a monthly update and briefing session.

Each of our lodges is to some degree an eco-lodge. We try and encourage to employ and procure most of whatever is possible from locals only. By this we guarantee that the locals are also included into the emerging wildlife tourism sector and are directly benefited. We encourage locals to demonstrate and share with us and our guests their native skills, cultural practises and their way of life. We would like to help, save and appreciate both their social and cultural practises.

Environment
We realise how important a healthy wildlife habitat is for everyone. Our policy is to practise sustainable wildlife tourism under high standards. We are signatories of Tour Operators for Tigers (TOFT) and have generated our own lodge checklist to raise the awareness of conservation and sustainability for our lodge employees and all the local partners who engage with us on a day to day basis.

Choosing products of 'green purchasing' and 'energy conservation' can assist minimise habitat impacts. At all our lodges we try to use them and educate our staff on why we are using such products. With this we hope we can change the attitude of personnel working at our various lodges and build an institutional culture.

We provide regular updates and material to our lodge naturalists on wildlife and conservation related issues and also have a well stocked wildlife library at each of our lodges for ready reference. We are in the process of training our naturalists to record all wildlife observations seen during the jungle drives. This information will be used to update our guests and also produce a newsletter. We are supported by donations of responsible, passionate tourists and companies. 25% of sale proceeds from our Eco-shops go to the Conservation Cell for executing conservation programs.