At Saad Bin Jung's luxury eco-tourism lodge in Kabini, Karnataka, villagers and tribals work together to conserve the forest and the big cats that inhabit it
As the last rays of sunlight filter through the leaves, a shadow slinks out of the thick foliage with an unmistakable feline elegance. “There,” whispers 27-year-old Shaaz Jung from his perch atop a jeep. Immediately, seven pairs of eyes turn to the clearing ahead. Under the rapt gaze of the tourists, a male leopard emerges from the foliage. A flurry of clicks from SLR cameras breaks the silence of the waning dusk. But the leopard makes an indifferent model. He was aware of the jeep the moment the vehicle entered his territory, deep in the jungles of Karnataka. For the tourists, however, this sighting is a privilege. The shy animal deigned to make an appearance on the last of the five game drives organised by Bison Wildlife Resort near Kabini Lake, Karnataka. The resort, started by Shaaz’s father, 53-year-old Saad Bin Jung, lies between two national parks, Nagarhole and Bandipur, and is a two-hour drive from Mysore. It is also a labour of love, one in which villagers and tribals work with the Jungs to conserve and preserve this ecologically vibrant zone.
Though the eco-resort opened five years ago, it took over a decade to come to fruition. Consider its back story.
Like his uncle Mansur Ali Khan—the late nawab who is remembered by his moniker ‘Tiger’ Pataudi—Saad Jung started his career as a cricketer. A descendant of the royal Pataudi family of Bhopal and the Paigahs of Hyderabad, he acknowledges and accepts the popular portrayal of Indian nobility as hunters. “I now realise the mistakes we made while addressing wildlife conservation within the forests that belonged to our family,” says Jung. “The rulers, to a large extent, permitted community usage of forest produce. Locals were asked to manage forest land, but were banned from hunting. That was the sole prerogative of the royals. There was control, but there was also inclusion.”
Inevitably, this reciprocity came at an initial cost. Many travel agents did not list the Bison because Saad had employed villagers. They didn’t think locally trained staff could deliver the expected service.But Saad’s gamble paid off, and word of mouth proved to be an effective marketing strategy. (After it won TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence 2013, business has been booming.)
Today, former poachers and smugglers work as housekeepers and landscapers. “It takes months, even years, to train them. And it’s not unusual for them to steal at first. They saw nothing wrong in theft, and would brag about it. Firing them from their jobs would have been a mistake,” says Saad. By training people and providing them with secure jobs and regular income, he hopes to create a sense of stability for hundreds of families.
Tiger poaching is driven by demand from China, where body parts are used for medicinal purposes. For lessons on how to—and how not to—keep animals safe and people happy, Saad looks to Africa, where he also takes tourists on safaris. He believes Indian officials should study countries such as Kenya and South Africa to see how the two countries have failed, and study Namibia as a success story. Namibia, he says, has effectively implemented eco-tourism as an integral tool for conservation.
(This story appears in the July-Aug 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)