Singinawa Jungle Lodge keeps a museum inside a tiger reserve. The Kanha Museum of Life and Art, a 1,000 square foot solar-powered building on the lodge's own forest estate, is described by the lodge as the first of its kind in a tiger reserve, curated by Dr Alka Pande, recipient of France's Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and devoted to the Gond and Baiga artisans of Central India.
Cottages built for the forest
The lodge stands on forest land adjoining Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, close to the park's Mukki Gate, with accommodation split between 12 stone and slate cottages and two bungalows. The cottages sit apart from one another in the greenery, with super king beds, fireplaces and double vanities. The Perch is a four-bedroom bungalow themed on four birds, with a shared lounge-dining room, library, kitchenette with butler and a table tennis room, taking up to 12 guests. The Wildernest is its two-bedroom sibling, themed on butterflies and suited to a family of four. Tribal art runs through both: Dhokra sculpture, Gond-painted furniture, Baiga paintings.
Art, conservation and the jungle are treated here as one subject, not three.
Safaris with a conscience
Morning and afternoon jeep safaris go into Kanha in customised 4x4s, and the lodge's Kanha for Kanha's Children programme lets guests take two village children into the park with them at no extra cost, often the children's first time inside. The Singinawa Conservation Foundation, run under the lodge's aegis, has built water holes in the core zone, facilitated health camps across 56 buffer-zone villages and donated a school bus. The Meadow Spa employs therapists from the local community trained in India and Nepal, and the organic farm across the road supplies the kitchen, down to a flock of GI-tagged Kadaknath chickens.
For wildlife travellers who want their money working for the landscape they came to see, this is, in our view, among the most convincing lodges in Central India. Jabalpur, around 160 km away, is the nearest airport.
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