Under Canvas in Tiger Country

Their son Jaisal grew up with the scents and sounds of this jungle as boyhood companions. His maternal uncle was Valmik Thapar, one of India's most formidable tiger conservationists, who in 1988, together with Jaisal's parents and other friends, founded the Ranthambhore Foundation to preserve the park through community conservation. So when Sher Bagh opened in 2000, pitched within the family's private farm on the periphery of what is now the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, it was less a hotel launch than a homecoming. Tatler listed it among the top 100 hotels in the world within a year, and in 2008, by the camp's account, it became the first tented property in India invited to join Relais & Châteaux.

Twelve tents, one idea

The tents themselves transport you, in the camp's own phrase, to the glamorous 1920s, and the conviction runs deeper than styling. Each suite is kitted out with bespoke campaign furniture, the portable kit of the old safari. One is named for Machhli, the famous tigress whose territory once included the very ground the camp stands on, which is the sort of provenance no designer can fake. The rest of the inventory, brass bathtubs included, belongs to the Sher Bagh stay page below.

Campfire society

Evenings here belong to the fire. You come back from the park to a crackling campfire and an Anglo-Indian dinner built on the camp's homegrown organic produce; homegrown produce has fed a farm-to-table menu for, the camp says, over a quarter of a century, and if you ask, a cooking class will teach you the family recipes over open flames. Days belong to the jungle. Ranthambhore is, the camp argues, perhaps the finest place in the world to observe wild tigers, and the supporting cast of leopard, sloth bear and, by the camp's count, more than 300 species of birds is no hardship either. Its drivers and guides carry what the camp reckons is a combined 150 years of experience into every drive. The UNESCO-listed Ranthambhore Fort and the Dastkar women's craft collective wait for the culturally inclined.

The part you cannot see

SUJÁN describes Sher Bagh as India's first positive impact safari camp, and the group publishes concrete numbers behind it. Some 82 per cent of the group's staff come from Rajasthan, most from rural communities. The group supports 12 schools teaching 10,842 students, and 20,000 people have annual access to free medical care through its mobile medical unit. All its camps hold Platinum LEED certification. The camp counts Tiger Watch among its conservation partners, and a collaboration with Elizabeth Scarlett funded a new anti-poaching patrol unit for Ranthambhore's Village Wildlife Watch.

That is the real romance of Sher Bagh. The lantern that guided the Singhs into Ranthambhore more than fifty years ago has, in effect, never gone out. You simply get to sit beside it.