The Naturalist
From the Creator’s Desk
‘Mitti ki Saundhi Khushbu’ wala Namaste!
This summer was a treat for Tiger lovers, especially the photographers! The leopards refused to lag behind and they too provided many a treat to the feasting eyes! The black leopard made some special guest appearances to keep reminding that it was still around. Pench is thriving friends and with the ever increasing tiger population the buffer is proving to be as good as the core if not better.
The Monsoon Season is undoubtedly the most beautiful time to come to Pench. It may have been considered off-season at one time but thanks to the buffer remaining open, monsoon rocks. Nature never has an off-season!! This is the time it heals itself and also everyone else who comes into its fold. The entire landscape turns deep GREEN, making it a fresh and delightful treat to the eyes. The smell of soil and rain makes you nostalgic and takes you back to your childhood days of enjoying the monsoon. Come be a child again…
Other activities besides safari,like guided Nature Trails, Bird Watching, Pottery, Cycling and of course our new Activity Centre will keep you busy. You can also choose to laze around in our Heated Indoor Swimming Pool or opt for a relaxing Ayurvedic Massage at the SPA.My note without the mention of FOOD will remain incomplete because that is certainly the most praised department at Tathastu. With comparatively lessor crowd, we will be able to pamper you even more with dishes of your choice! It is an ideal time to relax, rejuvenate and explore yourself.
Work at Tadoba, Bori and Sanjay-Dubri are progressing well. I am loving this time of creativity. Hope to get at least 2 operational early next year. Till then, looking forward to serving you in Pench.
Guests are obviously compelled to go back home from Tathastu… but only to come back! You will too!
Anil Agarwala
Managing Director
98230 33644
Kings & Queens of the Buffer
anil@tathasturesorts.com
Nature Matters
It’s simply been tigers and tigers all the way…in herds, literally! Sightings in general have been significantly more numerous, a big tourist magnet! Spotted in the Teliya and Khawasa buffers have been two tigresses with 3 cubs each, a leopard with 3 cubs, one of the litter, black. Rukhad has been boasting of sightings of a male and a female. Potential for reproduction?! Stripes being sighted there regularly are males – Kuraigarh and Raja, females – Sakata and Vanchowki. In Pench, Tarzan, having aged, and his territory taken over by a younger tiger, has now shifted as far away as to the Rukhad buffer. With Alia and Ranbeer (film stars, not tigers!) setting the scene in Ranthambhor, the trend of catching the tiger has caught on and like wild fire! More so, as no one seems to be going back empty-handed, sightings have become so customary!
Kings & Queens of the Buffer
Two years of being cooped up in urban holes and a bye to Covid (hopefully, permanently), it’s time to really freak out in the open, and what better than the necessary life-giving rejuvenator than nature?! To boot, summer at its peak, waterholes few, and undergrowth sere, making for clear viewings! What could be better for wildlife sightings, and so, they have, indeed, been spectacular!
Happenings at Tathastu
We’ve had some extremely high profile conferences and guests of late. The Curtain-Raiser was held here for the G20 Presidency Summit team that would represent India at the Summit in November in Bali. (The G20 or Group of Twenty is an inter-governmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development). The team was led by Deputy Governor of RBI, Mr. M.D. Patra, a keen wildlifer, who reached 2 days prior to the meet, and took safaris and enjoyed his stay. It was great to be hosting such a prestigious team. The cherry on the cake was they invited cricketer Javagal Srinath to deliver a motivational talk!
We also had a unit from the Kamptee Cantonment who were to be met by an important army official. It was to be a one-night stay of high-ranking officials with their wives, but had to be called off; however, they did turn up in the morning for the scheduled safari. We received them at the Khursapar gate, according the Defence forces their due honours. The forest beat-guard, a one-time army-man was overwhelmed and wished to entertain them, which we undertook to do on his behalf. They later partook of an elaborate breakfast at Tathastu. A small gallery of artifacts and an exhibition was also put up for them.
From the world of entertainment came actress Revathy with her daughter. Their amazing tiger and leopard sightings were enhanced by the Malayali new year, Vashi, which they celebrated by creating Pookalam – floral patterns on the floor in the resort.
We are proud to be the choice of venue for our corporate clients, whose back-to back conferences have been productive and proactive due to their being away from the concrete into the real jungle, amidst nature. We have had Alkem Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., Lupin Limited, John Deere, and Standard Chartered among others. Considering all this, we have increased our infrastructure with an additional banquet hall, and meeting areas with all the facilities.
Our horizons are widening with banks, defense forces and the entertainment world, all of them a feather in our cap! Catering through our meticulous planning and execution, we are growing by leaps and bounds!
Success Story
Making the Impossible Possible!
Creating a rainforest, an Amazon forest, 55km from Hyderabad in Telangana, in a barren and totally unfit landscape, fit perhaps only for cacti?! Was the man suggesting this idea crazy, thought the Ex-PCCF of the Forest Department, Dr. V. Ramakantha, when approached by Kamlesh D. Patel, called Daaji, the founder of the Heartfulness Organization and its various projects, including the Rainforest Rescue, Tree Conservation Project.
Daaji, a pharmacist from India with a career in the US, returned home after his retirement, and apart from guiding people on meditation, his forte, took up his favourite passion – that of planting and conserving tree species. One of the greatest challenges facing mankind and the planet is conserving the four major biodiversity hot-spots, 70% of which is dying due to man’s interference with nature. While many know of faunal species getting extinct, not many do of the several floral species that are following suit or are vulnerable and highly endangered, for example, the Madhuca insignis of the rainforest, of which just 25 individual trees remain in the wilds.
While rainforests in India occur in the Western Ghats, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and the North-East, this was a crazy site, but Daaji was insistent. So, a group of people and volunteers from all over the world, inspired by Daaji, took up what seemed to be an impossible challenge, of creating a rainforest near Hyderabad! A truckload of plants from Kerala and Karnataka were brought here, with the single thought that none would survive! At the outset, they put in black-cotton soil to absorb the moisture and used biochar by carbonizing bio-mass and putting it in the plantations. Daaji believed in scientific methods as well as intuition, and the plants grew, in fact, so did the rainfall which grew to over thrice the earlier amount. .
“Kanha Shantivanam”, this 300-acre forest, now boasts of a large number of rainforest species, several of them which were vulnerable, some almost extinct, not just surviving but flourishing, even fruiting, outside their natural habitats. The group is now propagating the seeds through their plant tissue culture centre, creating a large number of plants which they are giving to 18 centres all over the country for replicating this successful model.
The Ex-PCCF admits he took time to realize that this saving tree species is like a Noah’s Ark. The Heartfulness Tree Conservation Project preserves the biodiversity of the planet, and will include more and more trees in future. According to Daaji, if an aeroplane loses one or two of its many rivets, it doesn’t make much of a difference, but when gradually it loses a large number of them, the aircraft may simply crash; likewise the cosmos can collapse if the web of life is destroyed beyond redemption.
Pic(k) of the Quarter
A sub-adult from the buffer.
Photo Credit: Imran Khan, Naturalist, Tathastu
Team Intro
A New Journey and the Nuances of Eco-Tourism
Rahul Manke, Asst. Manager (Corporate sales) at the HO in Nagpur, has his hands full contacting, even visiting, not just local but potential corporate tourists across the country, a new learning he’s enjoying to the hilt. Gauging their interests, promoting the resort accordingly and appropriately, and convincing them to make Tathastu their next destination, either for wildlife viewings or for leisure and relaxation, is making him understand the nuances of ecotourism practices here.
He’s also learning about human preferences. For instance, not all guests who visit a tiger reserve are wildlifers, and Rahul has to be aware of this fact. It’s then important to promote the resort’s USPs like its temperature-controlled swimming pool – one of its kind in Pench, the largest number of room categories and its 59 rooms, the unique cave-room – one of the five in India, the ever-praise-worthy services by the staff and so on.
Rahul finds the staff here very supportive, Anil Sir’s guidance very helpful and his back-up support very strong, all of which lend him an unshakeable confidence.
Born and brought up in Nagpur with also an MBA from here, his passion lies in wildlife. He has done several orientation programmes for schools in some of the country’s best-known parks. By the way, if you’re in sudden need of a bird or snake rescuer, Rahul is your man! He acquired the skill and has been using it for the last 12 years!
