We at Vanghat believe that a holistic approach is vital when it comes to sustainability and conservation. Community involvement in all levels of our work is one of the keystones to our efforts in regenerating and protecting the wilderness and wildlife directly around the lodge as well as further afield.
Our team are all from the local area - who else better to guide walks than someone who has grown up here? Building work on the property was undertaken by local craftsmen using traditional methods, such as the mud and thatch guest cottages, or the stone lodge buildings constructed using the age old skill of hill masons and riverine stones bounded expertly with clay.
From 2004 we have partaken in a scheme as part of a tripartite agreement between the Corbett Tiger Reserve and Uttaranchal Forestry Department, the Eco-Development Committees of the villages along the river, and of course the villagers themselves, to bring to an end destructive fishing methods that had been increasing in the area, devastating the river upstream from Jim Corbett National Park. The agreement assigned previously non-existent angling rights of 24km of the Ramganga River to a selection of private entrepreneurs, including Vanghat, This provides direct financial and employment benefits to the communities living alongside the river from catch-and-release golden mahseer fishing, a species which has seen an incredible comeback directly in response to this scheme. Wider indicators of a healthy fish-life, otters are now regularly sighted even in upstream areas close to habitation. Rarities such as lesser and Pallass’s fish eagle are regularly sighted replaced in the twilight hours by giant owls such as brown and tawny fish owls.
Dialogue is also a very important in our ongoing relationship with the local community. Vanghat continues to host meetings to discuss and debate issues, and workshops on subjects varying from conservation of riverine ecology, children's days or sharing camera trap images obtained from our ongoing species richness programme. We are also in the process of creating village tours for our guests at Vanghat, allowing for an insight into the lives of the warm communities in the hills.
