gINKgo I The RARE Newsletter I Forest Stays and Design I Vol 116 I December 2025

Dear Travellers...

Our first RARE hotel was in the jungles of Bandhavgarh. It was deliciously remote, and we loved it when people cribbed about access ‒ the ramshackle Kalinga Utkal Express from Nizamuddin to Umaria being the closest point. With Churhat Kothi, we learnt that a fence-less 40‒acre wild space is not indolence, but a deliberate design statement for a forest lodge.

In Kanha, with a river flowing along the estate and forests, meadows, grasslands, and man-made water bodies around a palatial central lodge, we learnt what land that is truly “forest” means ‒ alive enough for a pair of mating leopards on the driveway to stop departures for over an hour.

At Kipling Camp, through Belinda’s conversations with guests and the community involved in lodge operations, we learnt the power of personality in conservation, community engagement, and simply being there!

With Satpura’s first lodge, led by Hashim Tyabji and star naturalists David Raju and Surya Ramachandran, we learnt what pioneers do ‒ choosing a low-tourism landscape like Satpura and standing by it. Uncompromising eco-tourism design, from natural STPs and scientific rewilding to sun-and-sky-led architecture, walking and canoe safaris, and Junior Ranger forest programmes, shaped both place and practice.

The value of design, inclusion, and visual storytelling through art and vernacular architecture defined Jamtara Wilderness Camp ‒ walking against the grain of tourism in Pench. Floors of salvaged wood from shipwrecks make a statement, as does a peacock fashioned from metal scrap. Set on the edge of Pench NP, the lodge shifted the idea of locational advantage ‒ from popular circuits to standing alone ‒ and created a sensation with its now-iconic star bed!

Where a lodge is placed, how it is designed, and how it allows wildlife to move around and through it cannot be overlooked. That many of our lodges witness wildlife passing freely through unfenced, accessible boundaries, often caught on hidden cameras or announced by monkeys and alarmed peacocks, is a testament to a predators' comfort in spaces we define as RARE.

The beauty and function of grasslands as a design element in wildlife lodges remains deeply compelling, especially in the first flush after the monsoon. The Sarai at Toria embraced this as its conservation flag, shaping a picture-book riverine landscape and a stamp-sized logo that speaks a thousand words on preserving habitats.

Karen Jones' blog on returning to authenticity resonates deeply, reinforcing a simple truth: conservation and community cannot be faked. As wildlife lodges multiply in the boutique hospitality boom, this becomes central to building anything truly premium. That 5 a.m. knock on the door announcing a morning safari will always mark the difference between a corporate attitude and an owner-run lodge.

Can you spot the difference between what is “instagrammable” and what is authentic? There are many. When conservation is the focus, who you are — not what you say ‒ defines the lodge. This shows up in where the lodge is placed and how it is designed, from spaces to activities and experiences. A wildlife lodge is always built deliberately, and respect for the forest, even when framed through the Big Five, inevitably reveals itself in everyday design and operations.

Commit to Preserve & Protect.

Lend your might to protect the Aravalli. Save the Aravalli

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year.

Shoba Rudra

Story teller & Boutique Hotels OG

Seasonal and spread over 11 acres, Jamtara Wilderness Camp dismantles every summer so the site returns to forest. Reclaimed materials, siting along a forest nullah, and open-fronted tents keep wildlife movement and viewing natural.

At KAAV Safari Lodge, an existing forest guest-house has morphed into a small-key luxury lodge with minimal construction in the Kabini‒Nagarhole landscape. Two tents on elevated decks form a signature stay, while water-led explorations, cycling, walks, and Tiny Safaris shift focus beyond large mammals.

Bagh Villas on Kanha’s Mukki side sits on land under restoration since 2006, using tented architecture built from recycled wood, metal, and bamboo. Rewilding through water bodies defines the design, alongside a spa that trains girls from nearby villages‒positioning wellness as part of the wilderness narrative.

Architecture at Khem Villas, near Ranthambhore NP, follows rewilding on land regenerated since 1989. Stone-and-thatch cottages frame vegetation and water, encouraging quiet, climate-led observation shaped by season.

Set directly on a 19th-century check dam, RAAS Chhatrasagar (Raj) retains the reservoir as its central ecological structure. Luxury tented suites face the water and rising sun, letting birds, wildlife, light, and hydrology set the daily rhythm.

Along the Ken River, The Sarai at Toria uses mud-and-thatch cottages and open gathering spaces to keep air, light, and views uninterrupted. Verandas and walking access to river and village edges shape slow, explorative stays.

Raised bamboo-and-thatch cottages sit on a floodplain beside the Diphlu River, allowing seasonal water and animal movement below. At Diphlu River Lodge, Kaziranga, elevated decks, unfenced boundaries, and direct river access make stillness the primary mode of wildlife encounter.

A restored 17th-century fort in Rajasthan, Ramathra Fort pairs adaptive reuse of a 370-year-old structure with reforestation of the hill it crowns. Ramparts and terraces overlook Kalisil Lake, shaping boating, birding, and village walks as low-impact extensions of the stay.

On Sariska’s quieter Tehla edge, Utsav Camp Sariska settles into the Aravalli boulder terrain using rubble stone and low, shaded forms. Courtyards, forest walks, and a signature star-bed experience slow the safari narrative and extend living into the open sky.

Svasara Jungle Lodge sits within a restored forest, with simple architecture embedded in regenerated vegetation. On-site trails, waterhole viewing, and nurseries extend engagement beyond safari hours.

Jim’s Jungle Retreat at Corbett’s forest edge, mud, stone, and thatch residences are spread across regenerated woodlands to keep the site porous. Forest trails, walks, cycling, and interpretation shift attention from the jeep to the wider ecology.

Set at Amaltari on Chitwan National Park’s western buffer, Sanctuary Resort is organised around the Narayani River as its ecological spine. Tharu-inspired, low-rise architecture and river-facing living shift the experience from big-game viewing to water, birds, and seasonal rhythms along the park edge.

Forest-facing cottages at Kipling Camp retain an old-world design, cottages with verandas tucked into a wooded site near Kisli in Kanha, Madhya Pradesh. A waterhole, river routines, village visits, and the long-standing presence of Tara, the elephant mascot, shape daily life through recurring, low-key encounters.

Stone cottages at Bera Safari Lodge face the granite outcrops of the Jawai landscape, turning rooms into fixed viewing points. Created to support leopard conservation, the lodge encourages time spent largely outdoors, on foot and with local guides.

Bhunga and kooba-style cottages at Rann Riders in the Little Rann of Kutch follow local desert building traditions. Craft, cooking, desert walks, and night skies set the pace of the stay.

In Ladakh’s Sham region, Snow Leopard Lodge in Ulley village turns a snow-leopard conflict zone into a community-first conservation economy led by local trackers. Built at village scale with minimal land change, the design prioritises warmth, sightlines, and stillness for winter tracking in an extreme high-altitude habitat.