Did you know that Tigers or Wagh are revered as God in the Gond tribal lands and are revered with the name Waghoba? Neither did I until I visited the Waghoba Eco Lodge recently. Incidentally, there are many temples dedicated to Waghoba around Tadoba National Park with stone figurines of Tigers as God. The name is derived from two Marathi words ‘wagh’ meaning tiger and ‘ba’, a suffix as a word of respect.
Food Matters
“We focus on the food of the region as well as the close-by locations. We have the Varadhi thali from the Vidarbha region, which has the Saoji curries, Maharashtrian Thali, and Hyderabadi Thali. We serve the thalis in traditional hand-made Kansa thalis with the beverage of the day while Dinner is served in hand-made pottery crafted exclusively for Waghoba. The menu is inspired by locally grown items including millets,” says Ippili Thota Rao, Executive Food & Beverage Supervisor. Dinners are a-la-carte and have Indian, Continental and Oriental. “We use an STP plant that uses the phytorid technology that uses gravity and we get back 95 percent of the water which is used for the landscape and gardens. We are working consciously to make the property carbon neutral,” said Ghanshyam Singh, Lodge Manager, Waghoba Eco Lodge.
Do More
The tiger safaris are the main attraction at the lodge and the Tadoba Tiger reserve has six core and 15 buffer gates. Safaris must be booked online and in advance. Tiger sightings are usually great and the reserve also has leopards, sloth bear, bison, wild dog, and other species. The park is also rich in bird life and there are two four-hour safaris that happen in the morning and late afternoon. This apart, I recommend you take a nature walk with the inhouse naturalist that will teach you much about the local flora and fauna. There are cycling tours, night safaris (where civets, nightjars and owls can be sighted) and boat rides on the backwaters of Irai Lake that can also be done.
Read the full story that first appeared in Khaleej Times here
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