When Sachin Karekar started a homestay in his little village of Abloli in Guhagar taluka of Ratnagiri district, locals asked who would ever come to this unknown village. Fourteen years later, Karekar is busier than many Konkan hotels, his six-room cottage booked almost all year round.
A farmer who never liked the idea of being an employee, Karekar, 48, says he has been particularly busy in the last five years ever since the blue-eared kingfisher, along with several other sub-species with plumage variations, began to nest in the woods around his home and farm.
While the home-stay was launched in 2010 with the name Garva Agro Tourism, Karekar’s main draw now are the birdwatching opportunities in and around his homestay. His homestay property occupies nearly two acres of land with a betel grove and a coconut grove, but word of mouth publicity and regular social media announcements have brought him birders and serious nature / wildlife photographers in droves.
“To those people who told me nobody would visit this village, I now say we’re busy year-long; people come for the birdwatching, the beautiful views and the home-cooked food, which my wife makes herself every day,” says Karekar.
Swarupa Karekar’s food is indeed a draw. There is no menu card, just the expectation of a wholesome vegetarian meal for lunch and a non-vegetarian meal for dinner, with a choice of chicken or fish preparation. The ukdiche modak, a Ganpat festival treat, is a daily preparation at Garva. “It is Ganpati festival for us all through the year,” Karekar laughs.
Karekar, recognised for his innovation on a turmeric variety that he grows, a tribute to natural farming and traditional knowledge, says his fruiting trees including Alphonso mangoes are no longer productive owing to a growing population of wild monkeys.
Visitors, recently from as far as Australia and Germany, sometimes visit the nearby Guhagar or other beaches in the vicinity when they’re not birding. Karekar himself also leads visitors into the forest on a trail, wowing guests with his knowledge of the bountiful biodiversity on display, pointing to them the Mormon butterflies, chameleons, varieties of sunbirds, the Malabar whistling thrush, eagles and the occasional oriental dwarf kingfisher.
