In Tune With Nature At Wildernest
“We as Team Wildernest braved all odds, fought with friends and foes, convinced and cajoled and succeeded in turning a dream into reality”, says passionate ecologist Nirmal Kulkarni. You can see the hazy glittering lights of anchored ships far away on the horizon as a beam flickers at regular intervals, warning the seafarers, revealing the location of the Aguada Lighthouse.
As an ecologist working in Goa's Western Ghats, or Sahyadris as they are better known, I remember stumbling upon maps and data sheets that had revealed the possibility of the Chorla Ghats being put under scanner of mining giants and timber lobbies by locals with vested interests. That was a decade ago. It was a time when wildlife conservation was at its utmost low, a time when a group of silent nature lovers and die-hard ecologists sat atop the wilderness of Lasni Temb, the highest peak and dreamt a dream. A dream called Wildernest.
Captain Nitin Dhond, our Managing Director and more significantly a nature loving soul and an established Seafarer with determination as strong as steel and commitment, set forth our objective - to create a sustainable venture, which would bring to limelight the natural and cultural wealth of Goa's Western Ghats. Nature conservation would be center stage and comforts would match international standards. We ended up creating an enterprise that not only supported the local economy, but also created a beacon for others to follow!
Along the way, we lost many a battle but won the war. We had a hundred people tell us that we would not succeed, yet a single sunrise at 800 meters above sea level inspired us and made our resolve that much stronger! At Wildernest, we learnt that only passionate people make history, and we as Team Wildernest collectively wrote that history.
As more than 200 men toiled to create a dream project that was ridiculed for harvesting rain water from a few kilometers away and generating our own energy, the fanatic ecologist in me made sure that the ecological angle was not lost at any point in time.
There were misfortunes and dark days and our men braved them all with support from village communities that divned the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra and included the five villages of Chorla, Keri, Surla, Kankumbi and Virdi. Try citing out a single example where five different villages from three different states have come together to support and sustain a project that is well ahead of its time. While Rajendra Kerkar, social worker and environmentalist guided and strengthened our principles and provided us field staff for operations, our idol, and Director, Mr. Pandurang alias Baba Dhond, guided us, gave us strength, cleared our clogged minds and exposed us to the ways of the world. With his radiance and skills, we were able to establish relations that helped us in our daily endeavour to reach out to the masses as well as the classes.
With Wildernest being included in the list of 100 Green Places to Stay in the World, our cause of conserving the Western Ghats has been well worth it. WILDERNEST website : www.wildernest-goa.com |
It’s 9 p.m. and a swift wisp of fresh air brushes my being to create a bond with Wildernest, a place where I have been reborn and perhaps always rightly belonged. Amidst distant alarm calls of a barking deer and the occasional cry of a Slender Loris, I stand rooted in my track listening to these sounds as my mind takes me back, down memory lane to when we first opened our petals to the world.
We braved all odds, fought with friends and foes and convincingly cajoled some to believe in our concepts. We pushed and prodded and stood our ground and lay to rest all reservations that came in our path for thinking outside the box.
Support came from all quarters: forest officials, village elders and local NGO's, architects and hospitality champions. We were on the path to creating eco-tourism in Goa. 
With local teams that were led by ingenious carpenters, Rajput tile fitters, innovative architects and resourceful local civil masons, we experimented with natural material that remains unrivalled in any eco-tourism venture even today. 
A technical wizard from Bombay Anil Patil, whose forte is design and architecture helped conceptualize and add value in the creation of Wildernest. These ideas and brain-storming sessions were cooked at a nearby dhaba. Ideas that materialized in seconds and those that took infinity.
Our team toiled with heart and soul and continue selflessly to do so even today. Samir Naik as Operations Manager achieved a 3 star status for Wildernest in just eight months. From an electrician who handled snakes and power cuts with equal ease, our security officer, an ex professional wrestler, to a driver who used to drive an ambulance, our team is a amalgam of skill and hard work. From documenting medicinal plant species to doing guest pick-ups, our naturalists excell in all fields. Reservations is handled by Zia and her team. 
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