Suján Jawai

Granite boulders the size of houses rise out of the farmland of Pali district, in southern Rajasthan, and leopards live in their caves. Suján Jawai, a tented camp outside the village of Jawai, was built in 2013 to watch them. The leopards share the hills with Rabari herders, whose red turbans and white dhotis belong to the same landscape as the cats, and the camp's whole purpose is that coexistence.

History

Jaisal Singh and Anjali Singh, the couple behind Suján, opened the camp in late 2013. The family had run Sher Bagh at Ranthambore since 2000 and The Serai at Jaisalmer since 2008, and Jawai was the third of their Rajasthan camps. The land lies between Jodhpur and Udaipur, near the Jawai Bandh reservoir, in a region few travellers had visited. The Singhs took on grazing land with the local community, kept the herders' access, and set up the camp so that nothing permanent would scar the hills. Over the following years the camp's conservation work with the villages, and the leopards' habit of sitting out on the rocks in daylight, made Jawai one of the best-known wildlife addresses in India. The camp is a member of Relais & Châteaux.

Architecture and design

The camp is a set of canvas tents pitched among the boulders, so that the structures can come down. The design draws on the campaign tents of the colonial era and on the royal shikar camps of Rajasthan, but the palette is modern: stainless steel, leather, cream canvas, and the black and red of the Rabari's own dress. Each tent has a bedroom, a bathroom with a shower, a dressing area and a private deck facing the rocks. The Royal Tent is larger and has its own pool. A later addition, the Rock Suites, sit against the granite with stone walls and glass fronts, a different idea of the same place. Common tents hold the dining room, the bar and a lounge of old wildlife books, and a swimming pool looks out towards the hills.

Dining

Meals follow what the day's game drives allow. Breakfast is often taken out in the field, on a rock, after an early drive. Lunch and dinner are served in the main tent or outdoors, and the kitchen leans on Rajasthani cooking, laal maas, dal and breads made to order, with lighter dishes for guests who want them. Dinners by the fire under the stars are the camp's habit rather than a special event, and the bar keeps an Indian and international list.

Wellness

A spa tent offers massages and treatments with an Ayurvedic lean, and the pool is the place to cool off between drives. Yoga can be arranged in the morning, and walks with the Rabari through the hills are as much exercise as most guests want.

Weddings and events

The camp takes exclusive-use bookings, and the whole site can be given over to one party. Dinners in the open among the rocks, with lanterns and a fire, are the form most celebrations take here. There are no ballrooms and no conference rooms. The tent count is small, so a large wedding is not the point; a private family gathering is.

Location

Jawai lies in Pali district, roughly three hours by road from both Jodhpur and Udaipur, whose airports are the usual arrival points. Jawai Bandh station, on the railway line between Jodhpur and Ahmedabad, is close to the camp, and Falna is the nearest larger station. The Jawai dam itself, completed in the 1950s, holds a reservoir where marsh crocodiles bask on the banks and migratory birds, flamingos among them, arrive in winter. Game drives in open vehicles go out at dawn and late afternoon, and the camp's naturalists track the leopards by name and by the outcrop each family occupies. Ranakpur's Jain temples and Kumbhalgarh fort lie within reach for a day out, and the camp closes during the monsoon months.