While there are a bunch of luxurious resorts in Karjat that have sprung up in modern times, Shalom aims to be different. Our farm stay in Karjat puts you into the lap of nature, we’re conservations at heart. Why? Since Shalom’s existence spans over 3 decades, we have seen the massive brunt that nature has borne here.
The road widening projects in Karjat led to huge old trees being cut down, hundreds of them, if not thousands. Over the years, the road that is now a national highway that borders the property used to be a mud Road.
It was just a single car road and over the years this turned into a road wide enough for three cars to drive by, which is good for transportation but not so good for the ecosystem. Every year during the monsoons frogs, snakes, crabs, and even scorpions cross the road, the wider roads and faster cars end up killing most of them.
When we first came in there used to be so many Gorpads (Bengal monitor lizards), fireflies birds that are no longer around. We have created a safe zone where there are no chemicals used to help the ecosystem flourish over a decade now.
We don’t use lights in the gardens to help the little fire flies reproduce, lights in the garden decrease fire fly populations as they outshine their little glow that help them find a mate. If you switch off all the lights, you will see the occasional firefly blessing you with its presence in season.
The whole farm has hundreds of mud crab holes in the monsoons, and we do not kill snakes, venomous or non-venomous. We respect their presence, and we have not had a negative snake incident over the years. We, hope to slowly turn Shalom into a self-sufficient food and medicine forest.
