As part of our initiatives under COCOON (COMMUNITY OWNED COMMUNITY OPERATED NATURE CONSERVANCIE) participation in partnership with the local community at Village Gothangaon, at Umred Karhandla Paoni Wildlife Sanctuary, covering over 100 acres of land, is definitely a gigantic leap forward from our small step at Camp Alijhanjha. At Gothangaon, over 100s of acres of marginal or lost farmlands lay between Critical Tiger Habitat and a perennial source of water, which were further ravaged by the back waters of Gosikhurd Reservoir. It is here that we have envisaged the BAMBOO FOREST NATURE CONSERVANCY at GOTHANGAON.
The BFNC Gothangaon is a world class community nature conservancy and will be operational by November, 2023. The area of Community Nature Conservancy is today progressing well in its transformation from being a lost farmland to becoming a vibrant forest of immense bio-diversity. What more proof of it can be than the fact that a tigress and her five cubs have recently made the conservancy land as their home, much to the delight of the local community. Large herds of deer, and other herbivores and ungulates can be seen in the BFNC area. It is also visited regularly by leopards, wild boars, wild dogs, etc. BFNC GOTHANGAON would offer unique experience to the guests who would be spectators to witnessing all this and much more from the comforts of their uber luxurious cottages pitched almost 15 feet above the ground.
Several of world’s leading environmentalists and conservationists have visited and have lauded our COCOON Conservancies at Gothangaon and Alijhanjha sites, and have unequivocally hailed these as the future of eco-tourism in the World. These include Mr. Eric Solheim, the then President of United Nation’s Environment Program (UNEP), Ms. Dia Mirza, Brand Ambassador for UNEP, Mr. Pavan Sukhdev, International President for WWF for Nature, and Mr. Vance Martin, the Chairman of the Wilderness Specialist Group of INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE (IUCN) & The Global President of World Wilderness Congress