…the project at Bhadlav continues to inspire, teach and document and offers a future for understanding how to manage India’s natural habitats.
Bhadlav re-wilding project
You know you have done something right when a project you spearheaded twenty-six years ago is featured by National Geographic, India, as a leading example of conservationists at work, taking steps to protect the future of our forests.
Welcome to Bhadlav, a thirty-five acre piece of land on the edge of the Ranthambhore National Forest in Rajasthan, India, purchased over time by Aditya and Poonam Singh. The land they bought was barren and their idea was to leave the land be, let it naturally re-wild and see what happened. The results speak for themselves and drone footage shows a dense and lush indigenous forest teaming with wildlife, including tigers.
The story began in 1998 when Aditya and Poonam Singh left their busy lives in Delhi to follow their dreams of living with nature next to Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan, India. They initially ran a small camp which quickly became known worldwide as home-from-home for wildlife specialists, film crews and the many hundreds of visitors hoping to share in this vision. Passion and a natural ability for conservation and documentary wildlife photography soon took over. As Poonam and Dicky became integrated into the local community they spotted a trend of local villages selling small plots of land in order to move further away from the borders of the National Park. Deforestation had meant tigers and other wild predators had started to move outside the edges of the park and the villagers did not feel safe.
So in 1999 Aditya and Poonam started to purchase these small plots. The intention was always clear in their minds; the land was to be left, to re-wild, to see if it were possible to regenerate the natural species and the soil which in turn could entice animals back that had had been forced to leave due to a lack of water, food and shelter caused by illegal quarrying, wood cutting and a general over exploitation of the lands natural resources. The only thing they added were small earthen check dams in natural depressions that naturally fill during monsoons and ensure water supply for the animals.
They now have thirty-five acres of re-wilded land which abuts the Ranthambhore National Park. Working with the conservation NGO Tiger Watch, they have set up camera traps for recording and documenting animal activity and behaviour. To date these have included tigers, leopards, wild cats, mongoose, porcupine, spotted deer and numerous other species. Most encouraging is that the animals are not just passing through but staying, resting and hunting. ‘The tigers rest on this land’, says Tiger Watch field director Dharmendra Khandel. ‘Usually they only leave the reserve at night. They kill some prey, feed and move back into the jungle. But on {Singh’s} land, they stay for four, five days. That’s an indicator that they feel safe enough to relax there’.
The vision didn’t stop there. In 2004, Poonam and Dicky bought their first plot of land adjoining Corbett National Park, further North in Uttarakhand. They were able to compare the different re-wilding processes in two distinct lands types, water causing the land to re-wild quicker at Corbett compared to Bhadlav which is in the Rajasthan desert.
Today, this passion and acquired knowledge continues. In 2023 Aditya Dicky Singh passed, but his vision that the land was always intended as a legacy for their daughter, now twelve, grows and flourishes like the forests they enabled. The next generations are also already showing their skills and the project at Bhadlav continues to inspire, teach and document and offers a future for understanding how to manage India’s natural habitats.