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SUJÁN Conservation
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Our Vision
To preserve and protect parts of the Indian wilderness as well as our diverse cultural heritage for future generations.
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A Family dedicated to Conservation
Our family has a legacy of working with wildlife through filming, monitoring, researching and creating awareness about tigers in Ranthambhore for generations. In 1974, when Tejbir and Malvika followed a narrow, winding road it led them to the base of the ancient fort of Ranthambhore. In 1988, they co-established The Ranthambhore Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), working closely with the development of villages around the park boundaries. As a child, Jaisal learnt the lay of the land by walking through every inch of the park; forbidden under today’s regulations. He was taught animal tracking and bush craft skills as a toddler under the tutelage of his father Tejbir, the late Fateh Singh Rathore and his uncle Valmik Thapar – regarded as India’s leading wildlife experts and conservationists.
"An early experience that shaped my thinking about conservation was the efforts made by the Ranthambhore Foundation. Spearheaded by my uncle Valmik in 1988, along with my parents, and a few friends, its mission was to create a harmonious understanding between man and nature, aiming to preserve Ranthambhore through the idea of ‘community conservation’. The Ranthambhore Foundation launched a primary health care initiative encompassing ninety-six villages around the park, an afforestation project, a dairy development scheme to encourage stall-feeding of cattle to reduce the pressure of grazing in the park, the promotion of alternative energy, informal education and other such activities. This really inspired me as a child, and most certainly shaped the development of my model of responsible, conservation tourism in the future.” - Jaisal Singh
Jaisal and his wife Anjali have since continued the family’s legacy of conservation through the creation of SUJÁN by introducing proven sustainable tourism models by opening ethically sound, authentic experiences in unique areas of pristine wilderness, which benefit local communities as well as play a role in preserving indigenous wildlife and their habitats.
About The SNS Foundation
The Philanthropic Wing of our Family Enterprise
Our family philanthropic wing, the SNS Foundation, was established in 1976. The Foundation addresses four development verticals – Education, Health and Hygiene, Skill Development and Conservation. The mission of the Foundation is to create social impact among rural communities, with an aim of achieving economic self-reliance and coexisting harmoniously with the environment.
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Making a Positive Impact
Our primary objective has always been to preserve and protect wild spaces in India, along with our heritage & culture. Everything we do supports this. By staying at SUJÁN as our guest you are making a direct contribution that will allow us to continue on a truly sustainable journey, committing profits to securing conservation integrity for future generations. A conservation contribution is added to each stay, per person, per night, as a contribution to our foundation. Through this contribution, every guest who stays with us is not only helping to conserve and expand natural habitats, but also contributes to our conservation and community development projects in the area.
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Our Tenets of Conservation
Our conservation initiatives run across several districts of Rajasthan with a focus on, but not limited to, the following four tenets: Biodiversity, Holistic Community Development, Sustainability and preservation of our Culture & Heritage.
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Partnerships & Collaborations
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Ongoing Projects
At SUJÁN, we are dedicated to preserving, protecting and restoring the Indian wilderness, as well as our diverse cultural heritage. These commitments of our family go back almost five decades and have been at the core of our operations since inception. Find out more about some of our recent projects below:
Free Primary Health Care Service
Working with our local communities to ensure that they not only benefit from the existence of SUJÁN but thrive because of it is vital to our operations. We have successfully launched a completely free Mobile Medical Primary Health Care service that operates 6 days a week, in our 5 villages neighbouring SUJÁN JAWAI. We have donated a fully equipped medical van and with it provide, a driver, a doctor & nurse and a supply of medicines, to give free primary health care to our local communities. We have treated over 5982 patients since October 2018, of which 51% of these are women. Villagers no longer have to travel long distances to seek basic medical help and, as has traditionally been custom in India, medicines are being delivered to their door. Consisting of just 10 seasonal tents, our guest conservation levy enables this van to operate throughout the year. That's impact!
Improving Education, School Adoption Initiative
We recognise that access to quality early education provides a foundation for success in later life, and also goes hand in hand with learning more about conservation and the need to protect our delicate ecosystems. We believe, education is the most powerful tool which can be used to change the world. We have adopted 13 schools, across Rajasthan, impacting over 5670 students. The communities close to our camps, play a key role in helping us to achieve our conservation goals, so improving the quality of primary education is key.
Anti Poaching
SUJÁN is a proud partner and primary donor to the Village Wildlife Volunteer Programme. It is run by Tiger Watch, with assistance from the Forest Department, Government of Rajasthan. It is focused on providing surveillance, monitoring, anti-poaching, and scientific data collection. The volunteers are local villagers, cattle herders and farmers, who, with the help of latest technology such as smartphone and camera traps, are monitoring wildlife and thus playing a crucial role in the conservation mission.
Rewilding: Giving back to wildlife
Currently our rewilding programme at SUJÁN JAWAI focuses on returning farmland back to wilderness. Every year, just before the arrival of the monsoon rains to Rajasthan, our team at SUJÁN JAWAI get planting! Land that we have put under conservation, that has been previously been used by local farmers for agriculture, is rehabilitated and reforested by our team, with appropriate local vegetation either grown at our seed bank or purchased from our neighbouring villages. Over the years we have established an on-site nursery at camp that holds a number of different indigenous plants, wild grasses and trees. By working with our local communities to restore and maintain the biological integrity of the JAWAI landscape in a sustainable manner, we are fulfilling our purpose to preserve and protect our precious wilderness & all that inhabits it for future generations.
Traditional Folk Music
It was half a century ago that our family first recorded the stirring music of the Manganiyars. The folk music of the Manganiyar tribe embodies the spirit of not only Jaisalmer but of a much deeper, musical tradition of Rajasthan. Through SUJÁN they have found a ready system of patronage as we dedicate ourselves to preserving their musical tradition.
Medical & Sanitation
Providing health care and sanitation services are a critical component of what we do at SUJÁN JAWAI as well. Sanitation workers are permanently employed on a regular salary to service sanitation requirements of 1250 households in the area. This figure is already slated to double in the forthcoming year. Additionally, successive veterinarian camps have ensured that 3507 cattle from 4 different villages have inoculated and treated for preventive diseases by our medical teams around SUJÁN JAWAI.
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We believe in the necessity of cohesive conservation to achieve sustainable goals. As a result, we work with and support a number of conservation NGOs because we believe cohesive collaborative efforts are the future of conservation.