Four years ago, in the heart of a pandemic, a hospitality professional with over two decades of experience across Asia-Pacific gave up the comfortable architecture of her career and moved to the edge of Ranthambore National Park. The homestay she built there — five rooms on 1.25 acres, separated from the park by a ten-foot-wide road — is named for the tigress. She is the Baaghini.
The word baaghini means tigress in Hindi. It is the name Kalponika Bhattacharya’s team gave her, and it fits on multiple levels. She is, in the words of her own website, a seasoned hospitality professional with over two decades of experience across the Asia-Pacific region. She has worked for large international chains. She knows what it means to run a property well. But she is also the woman who, during the pandemic of 2020, made the decision that many people contemplated and few acted on: to leave, entirely, and follow the thing she loved most.
In her case, that thing was the wild. And specifically, the tigers of Ranthambore.
She and her partner moved to the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan, to the village of Sherpur on the edge of Ranthambore National Park, and spent years learning this landscape before opening Baaghini in October 2024. The result of that patience — of choosing to understand a place before opening it to guests — is a homestay of uncommon warmth and specificity, where the credentials of the host are written not on a CV but in the way the place is run.
The Property
Baaghini sits on 1.25 acres of land in Sherpur village, enveloped entirely by the Aravallis, separated from Ranthambore National Park by a road just ten feet wide. It is near Zone 5 of the park — one of the core tiger zones, with its own character of dry deciduous forest, rocky outcrops, and the ancient landscape of the Aravallis that makes Ranthambore feel unlike any other tiger reserve in India.
The property is a guava orchard with five rooms built within it and around it. Wild animals cross the boundary as a matter of course. Langurs play on the rooftop. Big cats have been known to visit. The machan — the raised sitting platform traditional to this part of India — offers what the property accurately describes as “an unmatched experience of solitude and connection with nature.” Sitting on it in the early morning, when the golden orioles and parakeets are active in the guava trees and the light is low across the Aravallis, is the experience Baaghini is built around.
Every season at Baaghini is different. Winter brings the most visitors, when the safari season is at its peak and tiger sightings are most reliable as vegetation thins and the animals use the watering holes. The monsoon arrives and transforms the landscape into something that looks, in Kalponika’s own words, less like Rajasthan and more like Ooty — the Aravallis dense and green, the air cool and perfumed with rain. Spring brings cooler nights and the stargazing sessions on the rooftop terrace, where traditional chattais and candles are laid out for guests to lie on their backs and look up at a sky that, at this distance from any city, has not been dimmed.
The Rooms
There are five rooms, each thoughtfully curated to offer rustic charm and modern comfort. The interiors reflect the serene environment — tasteful, unpretentious, oriented toward the landscape beyond the windows. Plush bedding, carefully chosen amenities, AC, private bathrooms with modern fixtures. Balconies with garden or Aravalli views. Soundproofed windows for the light sleepers who need protection from the dawn chorus — though most guests, by the second morning, have stopped wanting protection from it.
The rooms open to views of Ranthambore National Park. On clear mornings, when the mist has lifted and the Aravallis are fully visible, the view from the rooms is one of the finest available in any accommodation at Ranthambore. The park is not a backdrop here. It is the foreground.
The Team
Kalponika leads the property with the focus of someone who has spent twenty years learning exactly what makes a stay unforgettable and arrived at Baaghini with that knowledge fully intact. Her second in command is Dilip Natawat — a man who embodies the Rajput hospitality tradition of the region, known as bana, which carries the particular quality of service that comes from a culture in which receiving guests is considered an honour rather than a transaction.
Shanu Khan, the resident manager, is described as the Ustad — the master — of Baaghini: exceptional culinary expertise, wildlife tracking skills honed locally, and a passion for hospitality that Kalponika credits with keeping the entire team united. He is the heart of the operation in both the kitchen and the field.
Eating Here
The food at Baaghini is sourced from the property’s own organic garden — a working kitchen garden whose produce goes directly to the table. The philosophy is farm to fork: authentic local dishes of the Ranthambore region, prepared with the freshness of ingredients grown a few metres from the dining table. Globally inspired flavours are available for those who want them, but the heart of the menu is the culinary tradition of Rajasthan’s eastern belt — the food of Sawai Madhopur, of the villages around the park, of the cooking that has sustained the communities alongside this forest for generations.
Meals are à la carte at breakfast and full meals through the day. Packed lunches for safari days are available. The bonfire in the evenings — a Baaghini signature — is where guests gather after the evening safari to compare sightings, eat, and watch the Aravallis go dark against the stars.
What to See and Experience
The safari is the reason most guests come to Ranthambore, and Baaghini’s proximity to Zone 5 gives guests access to one of the park’s most productive and least crowded sections. Jeep and canter safaris into the park are arranged through the property. Kalponika’s deep familiarity with the park — built over four years of daily immersion — means safari arrangements come with the kind of informed advice that commercial booking desks cannot offer.
Birdwatching from the property is exceptional — golden orioles, peacocks, koels, parakeets, and owls are year-round residents of the guava orchard, with lapwings and nightjars joining the evenings. Cycling and walking tours through the surrounding village and farmland offer a ground-level encounter with the rural life of Rajasthan’s eastern belt. Chambal River safaris — on the waterway famous for its gharials, marsh crocodiles, and Gangetic river dolphins — are available as a full-day excursion approximately 40 kilometres from the property.
The Ranthambore Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site standing within the park on a dramatic hill above the lakes, is accessible through safari zones and is one of the most singular heritage encounters in India — a tenth-century fortification whose battlements are now the territory of macaques and the occasional leopard.
Why It Stays With You
Baaghini’s story is a love story: between a woman and a landscape, between a family of hospitality professionals and the wild edge of a tiger reserve, between the desire to live differently and the courage to act on it. The five rooms are small and the property is intimate by design. This is not a resort that has chosen Ranthambore for its commercial potential. It is a home that happened to Kalponika and her team when they followed what they loved.
Guests who stay at Baaghini — particularly those who have tried the larger, more polished camps in the Ranthambore area — describe something that is harder to find at scale: the sense of being received rather than accommodated. Dilip’s Rajput hospitality. Shanu Khan’s kitchen and his knowledge of the forest. Kalponika’s genuine investment in every stay. The langurs on the rooftop. The golden orioles in the guava trees. The road, ten feet wide, between the garden and the park.
Come for the tigers. Stay for the Baaghini.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Baaghini, Sherpur, Khilchipur, Kutalpura Malian, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan — 322001 Phone: +91 98363 33889 Email: info@baaghini.com Website: baaghini.com Instagram: @baaghini_ranthambore Booking: Direct via website · Also on Booking.com
Host: Kalponika Bhattacharya (the Baaghini) Resident Manager & Chef: Shanu Khan Second in Command: Dilip Natawat Established: October 2024
Location: Sherpur village, adjacent to Zone 5, Ranthambore National Park. Separated from park boundary by a 10-foot-wide road. 1.25-acre guava orchard.
Accommodation: 5 rooms — all with rustic-modern interiors, plush bedding, AC, private bathrooms, balconies with garden/Aravalli/park views, soundproofed windows, tea/coffee makers, free Wi-Fi. Kids pool on property.
Meals: Organic farm-to-fork cuisine · Own kitchen garden · Local Rajasthani and broader Indian dishes · À la carte breakfast · Full meals throughout the day · Packed lunches for safaris · Bonfire evenings
Experiences: Jeep and canter safaris into Ranthambore NP (Zone 5 adjacent) · Machan sitting (sunrise and sunset) · Birdwatching · Stargazing from rooftop terrace (spring) · Cycling and walking tours · Chambal River safari · Village visits · Bonfire evenings
Getting There — Sawai Madhopur Railway Station is the nearest railhead — approximately 12–15 km from Sherpur. Direct trains from Delhi (Hazrat Nizamuddin) take approximately 4–5 hours on the Rajasthan Sampark Kranti or intercity express. The property offers paid airport/station shuttle service. — Jaipur International Airport: approximately 133 km (83 miles) — around 2.5 to 3 hours by road. — From Delhi by road: approximately 375 km — around 5–6 hours via Agra. — From Jaipur by road: approximately 180 km — around 3 hours. — The property is in Sherpur village, Khilchipur area — coordinate exact directions and arrival time with Kalponika or Shanu on booking.
Nearby — Ranthambore NP Zone 5 gate: adjacent · Sawai Madhopur: 12 km · Ranthambore Fort (UNESCO): inside park · Chambal River: 40 km · Kota: 110 km · Jaipur: 133 km
Best Time to Visit: October to June for park open season · February to May for optimal tiger sightings as vegetation thins · December to February for cool weather and active wildlife · Monsoon (July–September) for dramatic landscape transformation — park closed but property open, and the Aravallis at their most beautiful.
