Binsar Forest Retreat, started by two techies from Bangalore, focuses on sustainability and minimal... [+]
Perched up in the Himalayan region, a new hotel is going off-the-grid, encouraging visitors to connect with wildlife, and go offline as well. Ironically, it’s run by two Bangaloreans who had successful corporate careers in tech.
The city life in Bangalore became too chaotic and noisy for Preetam Reddy and Pallavi Singh. They escaped to the mountains for quiet and refuge. But rarely saw hotels that offered comfort, hygienic conditions, and sustainable tourism — all in one package. So the couple took up a property in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, renovating and updating the spacious rooms with eco-friendly practices.
The two-year old Binsar Forest Retreat runs on solar-powered electricity (though lights and power sources are kept off during the day, even in guest rooms), geysers that are solar powered for heating water, LED lights in rooms and common spaces, and solar lamps to light pathways from one room/cabin to the next.
The sustainability of the property is suitable for a place of environmental preservation. Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary is a 12 hour drive from Delhi — a small forest at more than 7,500 feet elevation where leopards can still be spotted, snow falls even in March, and clear vistas of the Himalayas are the greatest allure. Once a British hotspot, Binsar still has various properties that are remnants of the colonial era, including Reddy and Singh’s operations. Until the early 1900s, tigers could be seen in the forest that shrouds these properties; though they’re no longer there.
“It’s a beautiful place, and it should be treated like that,” says Reddy, seated in the dining room, a small, cozy, fire-lit space overlooking a valley on a snowy afternoon. “That’s why we don’t just include food in the daily rate, but also a hike. We want people from the city here to really explore the area, go for a walk, and appreciate the wildlife.”
Singh, a computer scientist by training, left a tech career to volunteer and work with a wildlife conservation group in Bangalore. She focused on projects that collected data on wildlife, mapping them in their natural habitat. Singh now takes visitors who are keen on spotting wildlife in Binsar on guided walks through the forest.
There are abundant waking trails, even for the city dwellers, she assures. In fact, to get to the lodge, visitors can hike up a rocky road, lined with rhododendron and oak trees, and vistas of the valley below, or take the hotel’s jeep. There is no direct access to the property by car.
Singh and Reddy call themselves “normal city people,” jokingly. “We want to make this place as accessible for someone from the city, as an avid hiker or outdoor enthusiast,” says Reddy who spent the bulk of his career at India’s most famous tech startup, Infosys.
The couple have, however, done some ambitious trips within India, including a driving holiday from Bangalore to Ladakh, traversing the country’s western Ghats, the countryside of Maharashtra, the deserts and flatlands of Gujarat and Rajasthan, before going to the mountains of northern India.
“That was one crazy trip we did, but aside from that, we’re pretty normal,” Singh iterates.
Two years ago, they were both itching for a change from Bangalore. Before saying yes to this new venture, they came up to northern India for a three month stint, helping a friend run another mountain property.
“That was the test,” Reddy says. “Could we do this full-time? It’s easy to do it for a holiday but to live up here permanently was another question.”
The answer was a resounding yes. In the last two years, since taking up a 15 year lease on the property, they’ve transitioned to their new base in Binsar. They invested their 14 years of savings, amounting to 1 crore in Indian Rupees, or about $150,000 into renovations. Though they're operationally cash positive, Reddy says, they hope to make a return in 7 to 10 years on their investment. Running it in partnership with Delhi-based restauranteur Rajesh Ojha, the couple transformed Binsar Forest Retreat into more than just a hotel.
The environmental aspects of the hotel, for example, go beyond just its power source. There are no plug points in the rooms: visitors are encouraged to charge their items in the common space — that prevents them from just spending oodles of hours on tech, instead of enjoying the nature surrounding their rooms, Reddy explains. There are no TVs at the property nor wifi.
In terms of operations, all dishes and laundry are washed using soap nuts, a natural approach to daily care. “After all we’re sitting in a sanctuary, so I didn’t want that runoff from chemical soaps to pollute surrounding water.”
The list goes on: no meat is served at the resort (to prevent wildlife from approaching the property for leftovers and to encourage visitors to try alternative local Kumaon specialities and vegetarian items); only organic soap bars, made locally, are provided in the rooms; farm-fresh eggs, local produce, and home-made specialities are included in the daily lineup of meals.
Profitability and sustainability go hand in hand, Reddy says. “We save on a lot of things, even if we’re paying a little extra for others. Plus, we’re looking at the long run and the impact of where we are based.”
For Reddy, solar isn’t always the easy answer. “We’re now at 2 kilowatts, but we thought a lot about adding more solar panels, because let’s be honest, some of the materials used to make these things are not always eco-friendly, like batteries.”
Yet on some nights, even the solar doesn’t work, or last long enough, particularly after a series of cloudy days, he says. And then they revert to more basic techniques — candles.
“But that’s the charm of this place. You don’t come here for noise, distractions, and gadgets,” he adds. To date, the hotel has had primarily Indian tourists, from major cities like Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, and a few international tourists, mostly British who are avid outdoorsmen or aware of Binsar’s colonial past.
Now the couple are adding events to the calendar, hoping that it will draw more likeminded folks. These include a yoga retreat, a sufi music festival, and perhaps even a small film festival — all up in the mountains.
