For the last 20 years, a married couple in India has been buying up tracts of land surrounding one of the country’s biggest and most famous tiger reserves.
Although the land started as a barren swath of shrub land, it has since become a lush green oasis for wandering wildlife.
Aditya Singh and his wife Poonam first moved to the the outskirts of the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan after he quit his job in civil services back in 1998. After they fell in love with the landscape, they moved onto a nearby property so they could fulfill their dream of being closer to nature.
As the years passed, they began buying up the land surrounding the tiger reserve in order to give the big cats extra room to roam.
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“As far as this land is concerned, it was a dream that we both saw and achieved together to have our own area of wilderness,” Poonam told Mongabay India.
The couple has since bought roughly 40 acres worth of land, which is now estimated to be worth about $140,000. Apart from clearing the land of invasive species, however, the Singhs refuse to touch the land.
Their determination to keep the land open to leopards, tigers, and boars has attracted dozens of local wildlife species back to the rejuvenated landscape. The forest now boasts two different watering holes and several wandering big cats, too.
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Their conservational labor of love has inspired other couples in the region to try and launch similar projects in their own regions.
“Money was never the consideration. It is just about my love for nature and wildlife. Instead, these days I am getting queries from people across India who want to replicate a similar model in their state,” says Mr. Singh.
The Singhs don’t plan on stopping their mission any time soon—in fact, they now hope to continue buying up land while they build a sustainable, solar-powered homestay for themselves on the property.
(WATCH the video below) – Photo by Mongabay India
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