Hornbill Festival holiday in Nagaland, India

Planet

Taking into account that the natural beauty of the Himalayan region we are aware of the need to make sure that we take good care of the environment. To do our bit for the environment, we have a few different measures in place.

We try and minimize the use of chemical detergents and cleaning chemicals. Unfortunately we are yet to find products that are 100% eco-friendly. All waste water is let into soak-pits to contaminating local water bodies.

We employ organic farming practices on our grounds where we grow a lot of the fruit and vegetables that we serve our guests. We source the balance of our produce from the surrounding villages where we ask the farmers to use organic methods as well.

We make sure to disturb the local flora and fauna as little as possible due to which our guests get to enjoy the presence of wildfowl early in the morning, monkeys and birds during the day; and if they are very lucky they might hear a leopard calling out at night.


At our offices in Kathmandu, we do the following:
- Limit the use of paper by only printing when necessary.
- Waste paper, glass and metals are re-cycled.
- We have solar panels installed along with an inverter which provides the majority of the electricity we use.
- We harvest rain-water

People

The Hornbill Festival is a festival organised by the Naga people in order to celebrate their incredible culture and heritage. This is a brilliant example of tourism being used to help the locals preserve and take pride in their cultural identity. The revenue generated also gives the locals a strong economic incentive to practice indigenous crafts and culture, thereby keeping their traditions alive for the generations to come.
For our Hornbill Festival trip, all accommodation is locally-owned. We find this is the best way to give back to the community and also the best way to engage with experts in local customs and culture. For the same reasons, we also work exclusively with local guides. All of this provides employment in a region where unemployment is high due to the historical lack of investment in industry.
The trek into Dzukou valley similarly provides much needed revenue to an impoverished region and just the fact that people visit it provide the locals with a reason to take care of the incredible natural beauty of the valley and preserve it as it is.