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The resort harvests its own rainwater and draws judiciously from a natural spring that emerges on the premises, and does not compete with the neighboring village for this scarce resource. Kitchen and shower wastewater is filtered in a natural and simple way so that it can be used to water the grounds or recycled for other applications. More than 80% of jobs have been filled within the local community and most food ingredients sourced through the local markets. One in every 3 families in our village has at least one member working at the resort.
We run an environmental education center at Havelock island, targeting local population – schoolchildren, fishermen, tourism sector workers. We sponsor the annual village games we sponsor 2 festivals and the annual carnival each year.
We support the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team (ANET). Our staff volunteer on a needs basis (whenever asked) and we give donations in kind – e.g. we helped build the rooms and bathrooms of their research base. Samit Sawhny is also a trustee of the madras crocodile bank and of ANET. We run special eco-tours where a part of the proceeds go to ANET.
We are installing solar heating for our hot water. We have a laundry scheme where we only wash towels and bedding when it is placed in the laundry basket. We do not use pesticides or chemical fertisers, instead we use elephant dung from our resident elephant Rajan. We border the jungle and take no steps to control incursion of wildlife including reptiles onto the resort. We use very muted path lighting so as not to disturb nocturnal creatures. We have recreated the forest in the land by replanting indigenous trees. The land came to us as a banana plantation and now, after 8 years merges well with the adjacent forest.
We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
