Originally reported and written in June 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.

“Ab hamein lagta hai hamari bhi koi value hai! (Now we feel like we too have something of value to offer to the world)” says Upendra Singh, a retired serviceman and one of the residents of Jarar village.

What he is referring to is the radical transformation that the Chambal Valley has borne witness to in the recent past. From being a land under threat due to illegal sand mining activities to becoming one that is now seeing a thriving local culture, Chambal’s fate is changing.

The National Chambal Sanctuary has been a critically important breeding ground for gharials, fish-eating crocodiles, and more than 320 species of migratory birds. But while this ‘Important Bird and Biodiversity Area’ received protection under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, its natural ecosystem has come under threat a number of times due to the issue of sand mining.

Not only does the activity cause riverbeds to become shallow and cause groundwater levels to deplete, but it also forces the rivers to change course, causing flooding. To counter this, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued ‘Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines 2016’ with principles directed at managing the issue of sand mining and safeguarding local communities.

But the area continued to be one that people stayed away from, even as they visited the Taj Mahal, an hour’s drive from Chambal. 

But in the year 2000, the scenario changed with an idea by a Delhi couple Anu Dillon Singh and Ram Pratap Singh. The boutique lodge they created here known as ‘Mela Kothi – The Chambal Safari Lodge’, has transformed Chambal into a place that people flock to, love, and see as an oasis of sustainability.

As Anu recounts to The Better India, “It was no easy feat. But the journey was more than worth it.” As Anu and her husband set out to re-envision the Chambal Lodge, which was her husband’s ancestral property, in 2000, the enormity of the task dawned on them. The reputation that the place had amassed over the years did nothing to help.

‘We........

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