Larry told me, as we drove through the park with the sun shining a golden light on the ebony bushes. The hunting was banned in 1972. The wildlife tourism industry exploded, but it wasn’t without its problems. Human-wildlife conflicts increased due to the shrinking forests and rapid development. Many operators focused more on making quick money off of big cat tours than investing in the growing number of people who live nearby or helping to preserve the animals habitat. Larry wants to change this. He has committed to donate 20 percent of profits from his hospitality businesses to conservation organizations. He said that the dollars from tiger-safaris must be used to benefit the local communities.
Larry also loves the chance to connect people with places he is familiar with. He explained that he was finally using his connections, which had been of no value to him when operating in the northern part of the country. DelhiThe Indira Gandhi Airport in a humid night, a few days prior to our first tiger encounter. Over the next few weeks, I understood what he meant: Larry had access to the best zones, gates, permits, forest department officials and guides. All of these are crucial to a successful safari. The next night, while sitting around the campfire in Suján Sher BaghWe overheard an unhappy couple complain about a foreign travel agent who had booked their tickets at a gate 45 minutes away. I kept my head down. I kept my head down.
Suján Sher Bagh is a throwback camp on the edge of the Ranthambore National Park where the tents, set under peepal trees, have director’s chairs, canvas-covered patios, and giant brass bathtubs. Its owners, Anjali and Jaisal Singh, have developed their own reputation as pioneers in the Indian luxury-meets-conservation space. On the first leg of our trip, we stayed at another of their properties, Suján Jawai, a tented camp about three hours south of Jodhpur that is surrounded by reforested farmland. In the past few years, big cats have returned, including active leopards as well antelopes and boars. “Suján’s anti-poaching success and push toward sustainability are exactly the kinds of initiatives we want to support,” Larry said.
For our final two nights, we traveled to Madhya Pradesh, where we checked in to Jamtara, a pared-down wilderness camp in the buffer zone—a government-mandated eco-sensitive borderland meant to mitigate human-wildlife conflict—around Pench National Park, a forested tiger reserve credited with inspiring The Jungle Book. The camp is simple, with ten tents set up on a dry riverbed. Amit Sankhala is the founder of the camp. He is the grandson Kailash Sankhala who was the Tiger Man of India. His work as the director of Project Tiger began in 1973 and helped increase the animal’s population and restore its habitat. This program laid the foundations for the conservation of tigers in India. Pench has dense bush and tall teaks that make tiger sightings difficult. The reserve was almost ours. We spent hours swerving along the rutted road, past wispy grasses and trees crawling with monkeys. Although I had heard that a tiger visited Jamtara, we didn’t spot one. There were prints pressed in the mud. Although I did not see a Tiger this time, it felt like one was watching. It was exciting to know that there was a tiger somewhere.
This article was published in the July/August issue of 2025. Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the Magazine here.
