The Better India · 20 hours ago

Surwahi Eco-Stay Near Kanha Uses Mud Walls, Solar Power & Local People's Skills

When Ankit Rastogi and Pradeep Vijayan bought 10 acres of semi-barren land near Kanha National Park in 2015, the first thing they did was nothing - letting the land rest for three years before a single brick was laid. That patience became a philosophy: today the property holds more than 6,000 native plants, a man-made pond that draws wildlife in dry season, and a caretaker who grew into an estate manager and a trainee who became the chef. "There is a very important difference between treating someone as a beneficiary and treating them as a partner," says Ankit. "A beneficiary receives. A partner contributes, grows and owns the story." Surwahi Social Ecoestate is still, by its founders' own account, a work in progress - operating at 70 to 80 percent sustainability, with the harder ground still ahead - and that honesty may be the most telling thing about it: a project built not on the appearance of doing good, but on the discipline of staying with the question.