Choolah cooking at Chitvan,Kanha

We are very proud to communicate that at Chitvan we have reduced LPG consumption by 80%. Initially we installed the Solar cookers, which iimediately reduced the consumption by 50%, and now lately Choolah cooking, which has reduced the LPG consumption by another 30%.

Daily the cakes are made from cow dung, dried, and used for cooking, these cakes are being used in an open Choolah (a traditional mode of cooking practiced even today in Indian villages). Not only does this reduce the LPG consumption in our kitchen, but it also enhances the taste of the item cooked.

So now you see Muffins being made by our solar cooker, entire boiling of vegetables being done by solar cooker, all breads being made on the Choolah,only the final touch is being given on LPG.

Chitvan Ranked No 1 by Tripadvisor.com

New Year begins with a good news for Chitvan, Kanha. We have been rated as the No 1 Lodge in terms of popularity and guest satisfaction in Kanha by Tripadvisor. The credit for this goes to our guests who believed and booked with us, and to our team which put their best foot forward. But the real challenge begins now,as we feel that attaining No 1 rank is good but sustaining it is the key. So whole new benchmarks are being set so that our guests get what they never expect in a Jungle Lodge.

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.