SUJÁN Sher Bagh

SUJÁN Sher Bagh calls itself India's first positive impact safari camp, established 25 years ago on the edge of Ranthambhore National Park. The claim has a pedigree behind it: the Singh family has been part of Ranthambhore's conservation story for 50 years, and the camp's drivers and guides carry a combined 150 years of experience in this forest. The styling is deliberately 1920s, canvas and campaign furniture, with daily menus cooked from the camp's own organic herb and vegetable garden, a farm-to-table habit it has kept up for over a quarter of a century.

Twelve tents, one honouring a tigress

There are 12 tented suites. The Tented Jungle Suites set the tone: brass bathtub, open stone shower, and glass-and-canvas walls opening onto a private veranda over the jungle grasses. The Machhli Suite, two tents behind their own walled garden, honours the tigress whose territory once included the camp itself. The Royal Sher Suite is a one-bedroom hideaway with a heated dip pool, outdoor fireplace and open-air tree shower, while the Imperial Raj Bagh Suite offers two double bedrooms and a sweeping pool deck, tucked away from the main tents.

A camp where the guest book and the conservation record are the same story, 25 years long.

Beyond the game drives

Ranthambhore holds leopards, sloth bears and over 300 bird species alongside its tigers, and the fort that names the park, an 8th-century UNESCO World Heritage Site, can be reached on a guided ramble from camp. Dastkar Ranthambhore, a women's craft collective founded in 1989, is a short walk away. The Jungle Spa, listed in Tatler's 101 Best Spas, sits under an ancient peepal tree. Practicalities are unusually clear for a safari camp: open year-round, two-night minimum, rates covering all meals, laundry, butler service and station transfers, with park fees and safaris billed separately. Sawai Madhopur station is 25 minutes away, with regular trains from Delhi, Mumbai and Agra.