CUISINE OF THE JUNGLE

An increasing focus for Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge has been to promote farm to table food. While there are numerous fruit trees, including guava, jamun, mango, lemon, to name just a few, and a lot of home-grown herbs, the lodge also identified an area to grow even more vegetables. The set menu at the lodge allows for guests to experience nutritious and scrumptious meals with recipes that are an ode to the region but brilliantly conceptualized to suit the taste buds of the international traveler. These meals are further customized in accordance with the guests’ preference, allergic reactions (if any), and spice levels.

THE FLAVOURS

The thematic meals (‘street food’, ‘local’, ‘continental’, ‘world cuisine’) will ensure you taste the best of everything. So, if it’s ‘matar jeera shorba’ as soup on one day, you can enjoy ‘tomato and peppercorn’ soup with garlic bread on the side the next day. From biryanis to barbeques, grilled chicken to vegetable hakka noodles, lal bhajito mashed potatoes, the variety is immense and bursting with flavour.

MASALA CHAI

2 cups water
1 teaspoon tea leaves or as needed ½ to 1 cup milk
Sugar
Whole Masala:
3 to 4 black pepper corns
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
cardamom pods

Gound the whole masala in a mortar and pestle. Boil water, drop in tea leaves with ground masala. Add milk, sugar, boil furthe or 2 minutes or until desired brown color appears. Strai hrough the sieve and serve hot.
Note: To enhance the or flavor you can add cinnamon, saffron, int, lemon grass, fennel, honey or rose petals.
Home remedy: For sore throats or a common cold, add a fe asil leaves and a pinch of ground cloves to the masala chai.

Serves2

DAL KEBAB

250 g split chickpeas, soaked for four to five hours in water I
large onion, chopped
8 to 10 cloves garlic, ground
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
Dash asafoetida powder
A small handful of onion sprigs, trimmed
2 to 3 tablespoons roasted gram flour Coriander seeds, Crusted
½ teaspoon grated ginger
Salt
Oil for frying

Drain chickpeas in a colander and crush or grind them light! into small granules like paste and mix all the ingredients int chickpea paste to make mixture, binding well. Take small piece f the mixture and flatten on your palm like a tikki. Heat oil, deep-fry in batches of 4 to 5 tossing every now and the to a golden brown and crispy. Slide them on a dish and serve with green chutney.
Note: The mixture should be thick, to be able to drop into the oil
if not. add some roasted gram flour to get the right consistency.

Serves4

Media Release

METRO.CO.UK - 11 May 2023

Meet India's Tiger Kings

It’s 50 years since Kailash Sankhala took the helm at India’s Project Tiger - and his family wildlife lodge is still doing a roaring trade, finds Tamara Hinson. MTEN minutes into a stroll along Bandhavgarh National Park’s boundary when I start questioning my keenness to see the wildlife. My companion is naturalist Simranjit, whose stories amuse and terrify in equal parts. He chuckles when he realises I mistook the flimsy fence for some kind of barrier.

Telegraph Media Group - 2 April 2023

India's great tiger success story

Alarm calls from monkeys grew increasingly shrill, the shrieks of peacocks ever louder. The jungle was on red alert. Such animal warnings about predators are just what you want to hear if you’re searching for a big cat in India: in this drum roll of agitation, our 4x4 rounded a corner and came to an abrupt halt. In front of us, a tiger had stepped out of the undergrowth.

The Sunday Times - April 2023

India’s tigers are back at last — here’s where you’ll see them

Poner Singh is a stubborn man. When India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) invited him to swap his hand-to-mouth existence in the teak forests of the Satpura Tiger Reserve for a free house and five acres of farmland on the outside, the father of two declined.

Vera - April 2023

FIFTY YEARS AGO, INDIA’S BENGAL TIGERS WERE ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION. NOW THE POPULATION IS THRIVING THANKS TO THE SANKHALAS, A THREE-GENERATION CONSERVATION DYNASTY.

Sankhala is certain I’ll see a tiger. He tells me this as we bump along the dirt roads of Bandhavgarh National Park, India’s tiger country – 1,540km2 of swaying grassland and tropical forest where the mighty Bengal tiger roams freely.

Travel Weekly - September 2022

On a tiger safari in India’s conservation success story, Bandhavgarh National Park

Tamara Hinson heads to Bandhavgarh National Park, one of India’s best conservation success stories, in search of big cats.

South Chine Post - August 2022

One of the best places to see wild tigers in India – and a lodge to stay at run by family of Project Tiger founder who kick-started big cat’s successful conservation

From the moment I enter Bandhavgarh National Park, it’s clear the wildlife is never far away.