Sustainability Story of Bera Safari Lodge

Bera Safari Lodge sits in Jawai, a landscape where granite hills, pastoral life, leopards, and Rabari communities form one of India’s most compelling stories of coexistence. Its Pinwheel narrative is led by biodiversity conservation, water stewardship, community engagement, local culture, and sensitive wildlife tourism.

The cottages use large windows to frame the terrain and bring in generous natural light, allowing architecture to remain in conversation with the landscape. In a water-scarce region, the lodge has helped construct borewells in villages and forest areas to provide water for people, livestock, and wildlife. It has also adopted waterholes for wild animals during the difficult summer months.

The lodge supports surrounding communities through livestock vaccination camps, reducing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease and improving animal and community wellbeing. Plastic use is discouraged and kept minimal, while waste is segregated and carefully disposed of in recognition of the landscape’s sensitivity.

Bera’s strongest story is the leopard. The lodge works to protect the Jawai landscape from encroachment and has supported efforts to ensure that leopards continue to thrive. Its advocacy against mining in the area helped protect leopard habitat.

Yet this is not a wildlife story alone. Guests are introduced to the Rabaris, traditionally nomadic shepherds and herdsmen whose coexistence with leopards defines the cultural ecology of Jawai. The lodge recognises the Rabari community as central to the destination’s conservation story and tourism economy.

Built to blend into the environment, Bera Safari Lodge offers non-intrusive wildlife viewing in the leopard’s natural habitat. It reminds us that the future of conservation will not be secured by separating people from nature, but by recognising the cultures that have already learned how to live with the wild.