Cooking lessons for our guests at Chitvan, Kanha

Our Chef Manjay, keeps himself occupied not only by cooking himself but also ensuring that guests for whom he cooks also learn how their dishes are prepared. Every evening, religiously, atleast one dish is prepared live in front of the guests in our kitchen, wherein the guests come into our kitchen yearning to learn the delicious recipes of what they are eating in Chitvan, Kanha. Whether it is the "Salforest Sandwich", or the "Kanha Kebabs", or "Safari Biryani", or "Kanha Kulfi", your taste buds will be treated like never before by our Chef. You will see guests in our kitchen with our Chef in practically all meals.

Zeer Pots at Chitvan, Kanha

Zeer pot, is actually two unglazed earthenware pots, one pot smaller then the other. The smaller pot is put inside the bigger one, the space in between is filled with sand, the sand is made wet with water, twice a day, and a wet cloth is put on top of the pots to keep off the warm air from entering the pots. In this way, fresh produce can be kept for long periods of time without the need for electricity, refrigerators or camping coolers made high embodied energy. Eggplants will keep good upto 27 days instead of three. The zeer keeps our water (and other liquid beverages) at about 15 degrees Celsius. This has reduced our consuption of elctricity to a considerable extent in the kitchen for storage purposes. So our efforts to combat global warming continue in small little ways.

Solar Cooking

In an effort to reduce dependency on fossil fuel, we have taken to Solar Cooking at Chitvan, Kanha. Not only does Solar cooking further enhance the taste of the food cooked, but surely it is reducing our Liquefied Petroleum Gas consumption by almost 60%.
Traditional "Choolah", is also being used to bake Indian bread. The fuel used in these choolahs is the cakes made of cow dung. The dung comes from our own cows at Chitvan. We are doing our bit to delay impacts of Global Warming, are you?

Quality Practice Awarded to Chitvan, Kanha by TOFT

Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT), a UK based Tiger and Environment conservation NGO, did a survey of all Lodges in 6 popular tourism tiger reserves of India. Our operations at Chitvan, Kanha has been awarded "QUALITY PRACTICE" by them for the year 2009-2010. Practices Under Guidelines (PUG Rating analysis)was done by TOFT of our operations at Chitvan, which is a measure to grade our operations, construction, ethics on our water, carbon, and environment footprint. Primarily they measure, resource productivity, waste reduction, and local community economy being supported by the Lodge. What makes us happy is that we have been recognised in the first year of operation, and this motivates us further to enhance our benchmarks in times to come.

Water Conservation in Chitvan, Kanha

In view of the serious water crisis looming over all of us, we at Chitvan, Kanha have got into saving each drop of water. There are a total of 21 bathrooms, in Chitvan. All the water from the shower and wash basins is being now used to irrigate the 650 saplings that we planted this year. We calculated, and it worked out that we are now able to recycle about 5500 gallons of water on a daily basis. Process is now on to see feasibility of introducing the drip Irrigation system, and treat the water to reuse fully.

Vermi-composting at Chitvan, Kanha

In effort to go completely green another step taken by Chitvan, Kanha, is Vermicomposting. It has helped reduce the waste flow to landfills. All vegetable and fruit peels, tea bags, grains, rinsed egg shells, leaves and grass clippings, basically all kitchen and garden waste, are dumped in a special corner which have earthworms to digest organic wastes and convert the same into high quality compost. This compost is being used by us in organic farming. It not only helps in our farms but Organic farming is also a big step to combat global warming, as this is living in a way that ensures Earth is a flourishing, healthy planet indefinitely. This means drastically reducing pollution and waste—and aiming to eliminate them—and cutting way down on our use of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions.

Chitvan Initiatives for the local school

Chitvan came in the area in year 2007, only 2 students passed the 10th grade that year, we announced a personal scholarship, so in year 2008, 5 students passed 10th grade. We worked more closely with the kids and this year to our surprise 20 students cleared the 10th board exams. Ashwani our GM brought the group to Chitvan for orientation. He took them around and showed the medicinal plant nursery, explained the benefits. Then the moment of great pride was when the kids for the first time in their lives saw a Computer at Chitvan, Ashwani briefed them on its benefits. They looked glued on. And then started English speaking classes for them, which is a regular feature 3 times a week now at Chitvan which is taken by our naturalists. At the end they did plantation at Chitvan, and they were explained the benefits of tree plantation, consevation, and why tourists visit their area. All teachers and students were thrilled by this initiative. And we have now committed to ourselves that soon we want to see lot of sports in this school, and lot of development.

Tree plantation in Chitvan, Kanha

Much awaited monsoon arrived in Chitvan, Kanha on 27th June. The entire team got together and has already planted more than 500 saplings in the lodge, and another 1500 to follow in next few days. Idea is to turn the degraded part of the lodge back into the forest. Saplings planted are same as found in the adjoining forest. Our GM is talking with the neighbouring village to increase forest cover in the area.

Sunflowers in Chitvan

This is the time of the year when the Sun flowers are in full bloom at Chitvan, this crop is not done only for look purpose but with a specific purpose of extracting oil, refining it, and using in our organic cooking at Chitvan. Afterall Sun Flower oil is suppossed t be good for heart, low on cholestrol...correct!!

Combatting Global Warming at Chitvan, Kanha

At Chitvan we have started to implement steps to combat Global Warming. Study was done on where we were contributing to Global warming, and then scientific steps are being taken to fight the same.

Our biggest challenge was to increase the forest cover, which would hide our buildings, so that direct sun does not hit the building and through radiant heat gain increase the temperature which would then require usage of Air-Conditioning to make the accommodation comfortable. We are in the process of doing the following:

1. Planting about fast growing local 1000 saplings aroung the blocks
2. Change the roof top colour to white to reflect the sunlight
3. Change the colour of the walls to white which face south and which are exposed to sun for maximum time.
4. Installing ventilation based air circulation system in the rooms with exhausts in the bathrooms, and fresh air from outside also pumped in.
5. Usage of outdoor solar lights to reduce consumption of electricity.

Steps 2-4 will reduce the room temperatures by almost 8 degree celsius as tested by us.

More thoughts in pipe line to make Chitvan a complete 100% eco-friendly lodge.

Nature walks around Chitvan

Our resident naturalists, Vibhav, Faiz, Sanjay, and Shyam daily go on nature trail in the forest adjoining Chitvan Jungle Lodge. Walking 3-4 miles daily in this virgin forest is not only refreshing but a great deal of learning takes place daily. It is just not seeing the odd Barking Deer,a Sloth Bear, Monitor Lizard, maybe Indian Gaur, but the richness of exotic bird life is something to be noticed and noted. These three naturalists have initiated lot of our guests into Birding on their regular walks.


As this walk is just adjoining a water stream that leads to the Banjar river, you get to see, Stork billed Kingfisher,Indian Pitta, Lesser whistling Duck, Comman Kingfisher, Crested serpent Eagle, Black hooded Oriole, Jungle Owlet, Crested Pied Cuckoo, Shikra, Little Grebe, Paradise Flycatcher(rufous), Black Naped Monarch, Comman Hawk Cuckoo, Blue Jay, and many other birds. A good one hour walk normally reveals not less than 25-30 different bird species.

Activities in Chitvan

We believe in the fact that no holiday is complete if it does not contain adventure and learning. Adventure part gets taken care of while you do sorties in the park to see Wild and Birdlife. But what else to do when you have time during the day.

At Chitvan we have tried to create an environment wherein there is learning for all age groups. No, no,no, Chitvan is not a school, but you learn a lot while at Chitvan about what real India is all about. Now, big question is what is real India? Mahatma Gandhi had said real India lives in its villages, how true.. So when at Chitvan you get to go and experience a typical day in a local tribal village closeby.

If you are a fitness freak, and enjoy walking, then take walk on the wild side with our naturalists to the Banjar river about 1.5kms away, through the forest adjoining Chitvan. While you enjoy the walk,our naturalist will show you lot of exotic birds in the area.

Participate in the organic farming activities while at Chitvan, our naturalist will take you for an orientation of our farms.

You may walk to a huge water body about 2kms away from Chitvan, and enjoy a cup of tea/coffee there, while interacting with the local kids.

A range of books in our library, all time classics, autobiographies, information on Wildlife, collection of last 110 years of National Geopgrphic magazines on CD's, and many more if you are into reading.

Our Chef who has experience of working with the best hotels in the country, demonstrates and teaches you whatever you wish to know about cuisines. You will take home lot of recepies, and memories of some delicious and organic cooking. Come and experience Chitvan for yourself.

Tiger Show on Elephant back

Regularly we get queries about elephant safaris in Kanha and Bandhavgarh. What used to be joy rides on Elephant back in these two parks in the afternoon have long been stopped. Now there is an interesting system called Tiger show on Elephant back, it has it's benefits and drawbacks. But before i delve into it, i would like to tell you how does it work.

In the morning, the domesticated elephants which belong to the forest department set out to track the Tiger. The expert mahouts who regularly track the Tigers normally succeed in finding the Tigers in the bush, it could be the Tigress with the cubs, or the cubs on a water hole, or a male Tiger on a kill. Once the Tigers are tracked by the Mahouts, they flash the message at the key camps, where the message is read by the drivers who are tracking the Tiger. They then take a token and report to the area where the Tiger is. Normally not more than 2-3 vehicles are allowed to be in the area where the Tiger is to avoid crowding and subsequent disturbance to the Tiger. Once your turn comes, you are asked on hop on to the Elephant and taken into the bush where the Tiger is. This is the closest you can get to a wild Tiger. You get an opportunity to click the Tiger and then you return to the area where your vehicle is standing. Your ride on the Elephant back normally lasts 3-5 minutes. But it is enough to get you good shots of the Tiger, if the tiger is obliging.

Now, the question arises, why is this system good. It is good, as tracking a Tiger in the huge forest is not always easy in a Jeep, so for a tourist who comes from few thousand miles this is a sure shot way of seeing a Tiger in the wild. Many a times the drivers and the naturalists are able to track the Tiger, but as Tiger is a highly territorial animal and also very elusive so it is extremely difficult to track the same. Also our Indian National Parks are not like the African parks which do not have so much of dense foliage, so while it is easy to track animals in Africa, in Indian National Parks it is challenging. Then the habits of tiger also do not help in easy tracking, unlike Lions, and Cheetahs which are found in a pride or a family, Tiger lives and hunts alone. No two big Tigers are seen together. Another important method used in Africa to track big game is use of wireless sets by the rangers in the Jeep, the same is not permitted in Indian National Parks. But please do not be disappointed, the fun is when despite all odds against you, the expert naturalists, drivers and Mahouts still track the Tigers. So, if you do not see the Tigers in your first drive, maybe second or third, please do not be disappointed, because you will forget everything once you spot your tiger in the Wild. In a normal three nights stay chances are extremely good of tracking Tigers from Jeeps itself. We do not guarentee Tiger sightings, as it is a Jungle out there, and one should realise the tiger sightings are a matter of calculated chance. But a 3 nights stay is a must at a Lodge which has good naturalists. Our naturalists and drivers at Chitvan, have had a 100% success rate in tracking Tigers from the Jeep.

Now, the reason why Tiger sightings from the Jeep are better than from Elephant back. A Tiger walking in front of your Jeep, or a one following your Jeep, is a far better photographic opportunity as a Tiger on the move is perhaps one of the most dynamic things you ever see in the forest. The angles that you get when taking a shot of a Tiger from the Jeep is much better, as it provides you with a depth of field which a Tiger photographer will die for. Though a Tiger is a Tiger, whether sitting or moving, but a moving Tiger is a much better sight compared to a relaxing Tiger.

So come, see for yourself these majestic, elusive, and most photographed mammals on the planet. Come once, as once you spot your first Tiger in the Wild, you will relate yourself with this extraordinary feline in a manner that you will come back again sooner than latter.

Cheers!

Kanha vs Bandhavgarh

Tiger sightings in Kanha are few compared to Bandhavgarh, but the quality of sightings in Kanha are far superior. When i say quality of sightings, there are various points i wish to state here. First and foremost, the sheer size of Kanha National park is huge, 5 times bigger then Bandhavgarh, which implies that the tourism pressure is not so intense here as in some other more popular Tiger reserves. Though there is rush to get inside the park, but once inside you practicaly do not encounter other vehicles for miles, and on many occassions than not you come across various animals all to yourself. There have been instances when our naturalists tracks a Tiger on the trail walking towards you, while you are wondering what to do, our driver is in complete control and is reversing cautiously, the Tiger totally oblivious to your presence keeps walking towards you, as he is perhaps patrolling his territory. Such sightings have been many in Kanha.

In a normal 3-4 nights stay, if you would do 4-5 safaris in the park, and you get one such sighting it will leave an indelible mark on your memory. Apart from Tigers, what you also see here and not in other parks is a healthy population of Bisons, Wild Dogs, Bara Singhas and many a times Leopards and Sloth Bears. So, if you wish to experience the thrill of being with a Tiger in the beautiful forests immortalised by Kipling, then this is your chance.

Sachin Tendulkar dedicates his 42nd century to Tiger conservation. Great gesture from a great man for a great cause. Our national animal is on the brink of extinction, and we are not even aware about it, if aware, we are doing nothing about it.

Idea behind starting Chitvan Jungle Lodge is to create an alternate economy for the community dependent on the forest for living on the periphery of Kanha national Park. We got a few locals employed, started organic farming in the area where everyone did only one crop in a year, paddy. Interestingly lot of locals have their own piece of land, but no inclination or resources to do farming year round, which if done will solve their problems and importantly, Tiger will be saved. The irony of the situation is that no one wants the Tiger to go extinct, not the locals certainly, not the tourism related people whose living depends on this, not the administration as well, so then why is this such a big issue. Why are Tigers disappearing? Think... Ponder... I shall come back on this..