The focal point of the region is the beautiful Jawai Bandh, a reservoir ringed by 850-million year old rock formations and riddled with caves, where Indian leopards make their homes. It’s a landscape quite unlike anything else you’ll see in Rajasthan, attracting painted storks, bar-headed geese, flamingoes and fish eagles — plus plenty of monkeys, sloth bears, wolves, hyenas, and four-horned antelopes.

Jawai isn’t just beautiful. It’s the coexistence of nature and culture here that makes it so special. This is the ancestral heartland of the Rabari people, who’ve shared the landscape harmoniously with leopards for generations — herding livestock and camels, harvesting plants for medicines and dyes, brilliantly attired in bright red turbans and white clothes.

Until about a decade ago, Jawai was Rajasthan’s best-kept secret; now, it’s on the brink of ecological disaster. Agriculturalists have sold their land, massive hotels are being built right up against the rocks, and the Rabari are running out of space to graze their animals. Jawai has even begun to see its first instances of human-animal conflict, between leopards and construction workers — something unheard-of before now.

The Rabari have been successful in fending off mining interests in the past, so it’s not impossible that they’ll be successful again — but not without help.

Our partners in Jawai are local people with strong ties to the land, and are among those working to put a halt to these developments. They’ll give you an insight into the region’s challenges, while showing you what makes it so worth protecting. UNESCO-listed Kumbhalgarh Fort, temples wedged into dramatic crevasses, horseback and camel rides through otherworldly landscapes of Indian Frankinsence, white-trunked ghost trees and yellow senna flowers — Jawai is still a magical place to visit, and we hope it stays that way for years to come.