Chhattisgarh to Orissa tour in India, tribes and villages

Planet

1 Our environment responsibilities start right from the office. We have a policy of using eco-friendly goods and paper, plus we reduce, reuse and recycle where possible. We print our office documents on both sides of the paper to reduce paper consumption. We try to keep our marketing materials at bare minimum by using modern electronic communication for marketing purpose. We also work to minimise energy and water consumption in our offices, and we encourage our partners to follow similar waste management and energy philosophies.

2 We operate with small group sizes which not only maximises interaction within the group and guides and local community but also minimises the impact on environment.

3 Our vehicles comply with strict Euro IV emissions or Bharat Stage III control regulations set by the European Union and Indian Environment Ministry. We regularly check and maintain vehicles to the highest possible standard in order to limit carbon emissions and ensure the comfort and safety of our passengers.

4 In this tour we use home stays and lodges which are safe, comfortable and operated in a sustainable way. We specifically pay attention to the lodges and camps for their waste disposal and eco-tourism policies.

People

1 We know that a local guide can enliven every tour; with local folk-lore, snippets of gossip, names of plants and their medicinal uses. Most importantly, particularly in remote villages, your guide is your host, showing us around his or her area. This helps to make our tours an experience of cultural exchange rather than a brutish trample through someone else’s way of life.

2 Many drivers in India are paid tiny fees in the expectation of large tips that allow the car owners to get away with low wages. We pay all our drivers a decent wage and we do not, as many operators do, expect them to sleep in their cars when doing long journeys involving overnight halts. We either ensure accommodation and good food is available for them at the lodges we use (and we check the accommodation is of an acceptable standard) or we pay for them to stay in a nearby hotel.

3 Tribal Dances: we believe that it is important for tribal dancing to take place in the dancers’ village rather than (often quite shy) tribal dancers being brought to lodges to perform in an unfamiliar environment for a group of foreigners whom they’ve never met. This ensures that visitors become guests in the dancers’ village; it means some proper interaction takes place before and after the dancing; and it ensures that the children and other members of the village can enjoy and appreciate this wonderful apsect of their village culture along with the foreign guests.