CALL OF THE WILD

A quaint little riverside resort endures and thrives, enabling its owner to float his boat in other wildlife tourism hotspots

- By RAHUL NORONHA

Shyamendra Singh's life has always been about swimming against the tide.

Born in the erstwhile royal family of Nagod in Satna district in MP, he had his heart set on working in the tourism sector from a young age. "It was on a family trip to Tree Tops at Chitwan National Park in Nepal that I decided on a career in wildlife tourism," he says.

As providence would have it, in 1986, retired major and 1971 war veteran Chandrakant Singh invited Shyamendra to invest with him in a wildlife tourism project at Madla, a quiet village on the banks of the Ken in Panna district. The Panna National Park had been notified some years before and Madla was one of the entry gates. Ken River Lodge was born with four mud huts on 2.5 acres of farmland that year. Twelve months into the business, Shyamendra bought out the major's share and decided to go solo.