India tiger safari holiday, Satpura & Pench

Planet

-Our environmental policy starts from our office and our homes. We use minimum of papers, we donot print unless and until it is essential. Once paper is printed and has served its purpose, it is reused from opposite side either for printing or for manual writing, for office internal use. Once fully used, paper is sold further to recycling.
-We donot use single use plastic like plastic cups or plastic plates or even sealed water bottles in office.
-To receive our guests at airport, hand written board is used or electronic board instead of a paper paging board or laminated paper paging board.
-As a welcome kit, guests are handed over cloth bags which can be used for shopping or to carry small items during their travel in India and later can be carried back home for further use.
-For each guest we give stainless steel water bottles that can be used each day for filling filtered water from their hotels before leaving their hotel…this avoids using Plastic Mineral water bottles.
-All our vehicles follow government guidelines towards minimising pollution.

Hotels used for this program support the following :
-No single use plastic
-Low impact tourism
-Local community engagement
-The Human touch
-Safe garbage disposal
-Nature and Biological diversity conservation
-Water conservation

People

Reni Pani Jungle Lodge :
-They have developed locally guided low-impact activities like walking, canoeing, camping, and cycling.
-They have engaged the local community by employing them and promoting their culture by offering activities like pottery and visiting their local dwellings.
-The local community is their partner, and most of the staff is recruited from nearby villages.
-Reni Pani has adopted the village school outside the lodge and provided infrastructure support.
-They have supported the park management in reintroducing the critically endangered Hard Ground Barasingha in the Satpura landscape.
-Also committed to supporting the conservation initiative of the forest department and pledge a good part of the annual CSR funds to the Satpura park management.

Jamtara Winderness Camp :
Keeping in mind the location Jamtara ticks many attributes for responsible tourism. With a legacy of conservation, the camp has always been a passion project and operates with a gentle touch. The choice of location was crucial as Jamtara looked at their impact on the area; thus adding a camp to countless other hotels was not on the agenda. The motive was clear – create a wilderness experience beyond chasing the tiger, a place for inspiration to bring children and allow them to fall in love with nature; and create a positive impact where there was a contribution to the community around with overall development of a better future.

When Jamtara first began, the local communities did not know what tourism was. However, with consistent training, the lodge is almost fully run by the locals today. The interaction with the community is also with the village schools and in times of celebrations and problems. Support is extended by helping villagers rise above the man-animal conflict with the objective to empower the villagers to protect wildlife. The safaris inside the national parks serve as an ongoing patrol against poachers and give local guides and employees an incentive to not becoming poachers as well.

The entire camp has been made with reclaimed wood and furniture, where every piece has a story to tell. The dining table has been made with mango wood, the artistic blue flooring was refurbished from government buildings and schools in Central India; the rooms have 1970s art deco furniture once used by embassies in Delhi, while the wooden flooring has been made from decks of ships due to be scrapped, and with items that were once part of the Supreme Court. Common practices, such as no use of single-use plastic, bedsheets only being washed when necessarily needed, etc. are considered a basic requirement to operate a camp.

The Star Bed concept at Jamtara is an extension of the concept of working with and empowering the local communities to ensure the success of conservation. For generations, villagers have spent nights in their fields on machans – beds made on raised platforms, to keep an eye on animals eating their crops. Guests can avail of this experience first hand as the jungle takes on a completely different life at night. There is a greater purpose to this experience – a vision to re-establish the corridor, and simultaneously support the local community. Before the settlement of the farmers in this part of India, the land was part of a continuous jungle, which is now the core and the buffer. Jamtara aims to reclaim the eighty acres of farmland and make it a part of the forest once again. Once the land is left untouched, it will organically reinstate itself into a forest, with wildlife thriving in it. The villagers can be made guardians of their own lands, where various models of tourism like the Star Bed concept, can be set up for unique and authentic wildlife experiences.

Bori Safari Lodge :
Being adjacent to the wildlife sanctuary, the property has a keen eye on conservation and preserving the natural heritage of the area by not building too much on it. Most of the staff comes from the surrounding villages; Bori Lodge ensures that the community can partake in the hospitality sector. They also source vegetables and fruits from the villages around.