This Duo Turned 10 Acres of Dry Land Into an Eco-Stay With 6000 Plants, Mud Walls & Local Jobs

For about three years, he and Pradeep Vijayan left the 10 acres they had bought near Kanha National Park largely untouched. The semi-barren land in Madhya Pradesh had fewer than 300 trees when they purchased it in December 2015.

Today, the same protected stretch holds more than 6,000 native plants and trees, 59 bird species and a man-made pond that draws wildlife during summers, when water becomes scarce across the region.

Ankit and Pradeep had spent decades in India’s travel industry and stayed in almost every kind of property imaginable. Through those years, they often saw tourism serve visitors while offering limited benefits to the surrounding communities and ecosystems.

They wanted to build a different model near one of India’s best-known conservation areas.

“We did not want to build something that looked responsible from the outside but operated like every other property on the inside,” says Ankit.

Surwahi Social Ecoestate was conceived as a long-term impact venture where tourism could help restore the land, support local people and preserve traditional skills.

Surwahi’s reception uses mud walls and furniture sourced second-hand or made locally

The two founders continued with their corporate careers while building it. Ankit currently serves as the Chief Product Officer at Angel One, while Pradeep leads Hotels Business and Partnerships at Ixigo. Their corporate incomes funded and sustained Surwahi through its long development period, including the pandemic years.

For its first 10 years, Pradeep worked as an active co-founder involved in every stage of building and running the estate. Ankit shaped the environmental vision and overall direction, while Pradeep led its execution on the ground.

He handled inbound sales and marketing, business development, sustainability partnerships, digital distribution and content, as well as staff onboarding, training and engagement. His relationships with the local administration and the Forest and Revenue departments also helped the project find its footing.

The estate’s main buildings use thick mud walls and recycled terracotta roof tiles.

The estate was being built by two outsiders, and the idea initially faced scepticism in the area. Over the past year, Pradeep has stepped back from daily operations, although he remains involved as a founding promoter.

What happens when you let nature be?

The land, locally recorded as Satkata Jungle, began recovering after the founders fenced it.

The fencing stopped illegal tree felling and blocked vehicles involved in illegal sand mining along the neighbouring Sandook River. Tractors and lorries had previously moved through the land, damaging the roots of existing trees and plants.

Within two to three monsoons, the forest began regenerating naturally.

Around 4,500 of Surwahi’s 6,000 plants and trees emerged through natural regeneration.

The team also dug a man-made pond called Arjun Talab to collect monsoon run-off and recharge the groundwater. This reduced the amount of rainwater flowing unused into the Sandook River.

Before drilling a borewell, they commissioned a hydrogeological survey to map the aquifer and identify the appropriate location. The survey also recommended catchment trenches to retain run-off and native species suited to the available water.

These included Paras Peepal, Cassia siamea and local bamboo. The findings guided the planting of around 1,000 trees.

Of the more than 6,000 plants and trees now growing on the estate, roughly 1,500 were planted. The remaining 4,500 emerged through natural regeneration.

As the forest recovered, bees, birds and butterflies returned in greater numbers. Their pollinating activity supported further growth with every monsoon. More recently, the team added around 300 fruit and flowering varieties within the main compound.

Once the land had begun recovering, Ankit and his team spent years looking for architects who shared their values. They eventually found Mrinmayee Architects from Bangalore, led by eminent professors from IISc and a young architect who worked with local masons to bring the vision to life.

Workers from surrounding villages built the estate, from masonry to painting and plumbing.

The construction brief was simple and uncompromising. The team wanted to avoid baked red bricks, glass and steel wherever possible.

Thick mud walls went up instead, helping the buildings respond naturally to changing temperatures. The roofs were layered with recycled terracotta tiles collected from broken village homes nearby.

“Every single worker, from the mason to the painter and plumber, came from the surrounding villages. That was non-negotiable,” says Ankit. “This land belongs to these people. The least we could do was make sure they built it.”

Every piece of furniture was either bought second-hand from Jabalpur’s Gurundi market or made by local bamboo craftspeople.

The ramp forms part of Surwahi’s facilities for older people and guests with disabilities.

The first space, Maikal Express, opened in October 2019. The eight-bed earthen dormitory was named after the Maikal hills near Kanha and designed as a “co-living in the wilderness” space where nature, community and tourism could coexist.

A few months later, the pandemic brought Surwahi’s plans to a standstill. The founders continued supporting the project through their corporate incomes.

In December 2021, the ecoestate added two family suites named Jholar and Kariwah. Both were named after villages that were relocated outside Kanha in the 1970s when the national park was established.

Maikal Express opened in October 2019 as an eight-bed earthen dormitory near Kanha.

“We named them deliberately,” says Ankit, “to keep that memory alive.”

Today, Surwahi is fully operational. It remains small by design and continues to develop each part of the property around its environmental and community goals.

A toilet that uses banana trees to break down waste

Once the buildings were ready, the team faced another difficult question: how could they run a hospitality property in a forest buffer zone without damaging its surroundings?

They examined sanitation, water, energy and waste with the same care they had brought to the land and construction.

Conventional septic tanks were ruled out from the beginning. Finding another solution in a remote forest-edge location required extensive research.

“There was no local precedent,” says Ankit. “Every solution had to be researched and built from the ground up.”

Jholar is one of two family suites added in 2021 and named after a relocated village.

With support from Safalgram in Uttar Pradesh and international sanitation expert Marta Vanduzer-Snow from the USA, the team installed an Evapotranspiration Toilet.

In this zero-discharge system, waste is broken down naturally with the help of banana trees and other nitrogen-loving plants. The team says it was the first system of its kind in Madhya Pradesh.

A 1,500-litre bio-digester using bacteria developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation sits on the other side of the property. According to the team, it was also the first system of its kind used by a hospitality property in the region at the time.

Water received the same attention.

“You don’t guess with groundwater in a forest,” says Ankit. “We believe we may be the first lodge in Madhya Pradesh to have done this before drilling.”

Rainwater from the roof of Satkon, the dining space, is channelled into a fish pond within it. When the pond fills, the overflow helps recharge an old well nearby.

Rainwater from Satkon’s roof is directed into a fish pond inside the dining space.

The property also uses a chemical-free earthen plunge pool in place of a conventional swimming pool. Solar power runs the estate, while a wood-fired boiler provides hot water.

Thin cotton towels reduce the water needed during each wash, and plastic is completely banned.

The founders carried this thinking beyond the property boundary. In 2017, Ankit proposed building a stop dam on the nearby Sandook Stream so that farmers could retain water and grow a second crop.

“It took years of persistent follow-ups across panchayat (village council), tehsil (administrative subdivision) and district levels before it was finally approved and built under MNREGA,” says Ankit. “That is the thing about doing the right thing in this country. You have to be willing to wait and keep showing up.”

Surwahi’s buildings combine mud walls, reused roof tiles and locally made wooden features.

The banks of the stop dam eroded after its first two monsoons. Since then, Surwahi’s staff and local residents have maintained it seasonally using sand-filled gunny bags and catchment dug-outs.

The water now remains available for longer, supporting a second crop, fishing, cattle grazing and the foliage growing along the Sandook. At least 10 families benefit directly.

Water alone, however, could not solve the farmers’ irrigation problem. They had access to water, but lacked electricity to pump it into their fields.

In 2019, Surwahi funded and hosted an 11 kVA transformer and grid connection for the farmland. The team describes it as the first installation of its kind in Madhya Pradesh.

With the grid line and subsidised electricity billing from the state, at least seven farmers began growing a second crop.

Shared outdoor spaces sit alongside Surwahi’s dormitory and its two family suites.

Surwahi’s work has received recognition from ICRT, TOFT, Outlook Traveller and the Wildlife Tourism Conclave, among others. The founders, however, continue to measure their progress by the work that remains.

Their internal sustainability scorecard covers water conservation, clean air, chemical-free soil, waste segregation and recycling, toilet waste management, reforestation and community participation beyond direct employment.

It also considers inclusive facilities for pets, older people and guests with disabilities, alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, local sourcing of food and materials, and sustainable building design, including the earthen plunge pool.

Against this scorecard, the team says Surwahi comfortably crosses the halfway mark and estimates that it currently operates at 70 to 80 percent sustainability.

A shared work area provides desks, books and basic facilities for guests at the estate.

“We currently operate at 70 to 80 percent sustainability,” says Ankit. “But our goal is to keep closing that gap and reach 100% soon.”

The team sees reaching 90 percent and beyond as the next difficult phase of that work.

When forests and people thrive together

For all the work that went into restoring the land, Ankit felt that conservation had to improve the lives of those who lived around the forest.

“If the forest is thriving but the people living around it are not, then we haven’t really solved anything,” says Ankit. “We wanted to change that.”

The team began with a clear principle: hire locally, train people patiently and create opportunities that would last beyond individual jobs.

Priyanka Rastogi, another travel industry veteran, joined the team to lead planning and strategy. Suraj Singh and Lokesh Dongre joined as interns in 2024 and soon grew into core roles focused on community-based tourism.

Kariwah’s corridor mural depicts a monkey, elephants, birds and trees from the landscape.

“Creating jobs is only the first step,” says Priyanka. “The real impact comes when people gain the confidence and skills to take ownership, grow into leadership roles, and build long-term careers.”

A caretaker became manager, and a trainee became chef

Narendra Patle from Sarekha village was one of Surwahi’s earliest hires. He joined as a caretaker while the ecoestate was still under construction.

Hospitality was an unfamiliar field for him. With training and mentoring from Ankit, Narendra grew into the role of Estate Manager and now helps run Surwahi.

Pradeep Uikey followed a similar path. He joined without any formal culinary training and now works as the ecoestate’s full-time chef.

Pradeep Uikey joined without formal culinary training and now works as Surwahi’s chef.

For Ankit, their journeys reflect what community-led tourism should achieve.

“It would have been easier to bring in experienced managers from outside,” Priyanka says. “But then the knowledge leaves when they leave. When local people grow into leadership positions, the benefits stay within the community.”

Some of Surwahi’s widest community work has developed through the women of neighbouring villages.

In 2017, the founders helped establish the Deetya Jagriti Self-Help Group after noticing that local women had limited opportunities to earn independently or build a collective voice.

Today, more than 40 women from nearby villages are part of the group. Through small member deposits, they have pooled over Rs 1 lakh.

Jholar’s corridor carries hand-painted scenes of deer, birds and trees from the region.

The group lends this money internally at one percent monthly interest, functioning as a small micro-finance body. Members have used the loans to buy seeds and cattle, and to meet urgent medical expenses and pay their children’s school fees.

Surwahi is now exploring a partnership with a larger non-banking financial company or registration with the National or State Livelihood Mission to formalise the group’s work. It is also seeking local partners who can offer members practical skills training.

The impact reaches people across the surrounding villages in different ways.

“Neighbouring farmer Sohan Ji takes guests through his fields during the monsoon, explaining how crops are grown in the region,” says Suraj.

Gond artist Sanjay Pancheshwar conducts painting workshops for guests, while potters from nearby Boda village meet visitors interested in their craft.

“Bamboo artisans receive regular work through the property’s commitment to local sourcing,” adds Lokesh.

Wildlife murals appear along the corridors connecting Surwahi’s family suites.

Surwahi directly employs more than seven people from nearby villages. The founders estimate that over 50 others benefit through a wider network of women from Deetya Jagriti, farmers, artists, potters, bamboo workers, home hosts and families that supply produce to the property.

For Ankit, the relationship between Surwahi and the surrounding communities matters as much as these numbers.

“There is a very important difference between treating someone as a beneficiary and treating them as a partner,” he says. “A beneficiary receives. A partner contributes, grows and owns the story.”

That approach shapes the meals served at the estate, the art and farming workshops offered to visitors, and the conversations guests have with people whose families have lived alongside the forest for generations.

Ten years ago, Ankit and Pradeep began with a question that had followed them through their careers in tourism: could travel benefit a place as much as it benefits the traveller?

The answer remains a work in progress. The forest continues to regenerate, local workers now lead the property, farmers are growing a second crop, and the women’s group is working towards a more formal community lending model.

“Today, we are still working towards that answer,” says Ankit.

Before you visit

How to reach: Jabalpur Airport, 160 km away

Tariffs: Double rooms from Rs 10,000, plus taxes

Best time to visit: September to June

For more details, visit their website.

Source: The Better India