gINKgo I RARE Newsletter | Friends of the Forest | Vol 44

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Love for nature…it is in all of us. In the prayers we say and the wishes we make, hidden as metaphors long forgotten to relate to or remember. Hence a simple word like ‘Naturalist’ which is anyone interested in the natural world has come to mean the profession of being a naturalist. Indeed if you are interested in the natural world, it is ‘natural’ that you would like to get closer to nature, understand her better and ensure her preservation. Travelling to forests or to nature reserves can be much more than just a vacation, definitely more than a package tour with the possibility of the perfect ‘gram’ shot!

The RARE Community of wildlife lodges have been advocating wildlife tourism at their lodges as an opportunity to understand nature, engage and transform with the natural world. It has helped immensely that each of the lodge owners on the RARE list have been associated with conservation and community inclusive tourism from their first phase of design that included key touchstones for sustainability and regeneration which holds good to this day.

RARE Lodges for wildlife and nature will never be just any lodge, the interactions with owners and experiences that always look ‘beyond the safari’ are potential change makers. Always community inclusive, RARE lodges have the quality of being respectful of the local cultures and environment, and being inspired by the destination that reflects in their design and serves a larger ideal. The landscape of local grass in Sarai at Toria, tiled roofs of the cottages in Kipling Camp, the hill cottages in Reni Pani, wild gardens of Bandhavgarh Jungle lodge and Jamtara, wall art and forest nursery in Svasara Lodge – all of them serve to connect you with the national park, wildlife and community in a unique way.

Proudly presented as ‘Friends of the Forest’, in this edition we begin with our lodges in Central India that open on Oct 01 keeping time with the opening of National Parks in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Owner run, these lodges reflect their personal interests, beliefs and initiatives and have often been widely quoted as blue prints for lodges with best practises. TOFTigers pugmark rated and set in thriving micro-habitats of their own, RARE wildlife lodges offer a wide range of interesting experiences that makes every wildlife program an opportunity to watch, learn, engage and understand nature and wildlife, and above all ‘fall in love’ with the forest in its entirety.