He lay stretched on a ledge of granite rock, as though carved from tawny stone. We watched the leopard from across a wide chasm as he uncurled himself, limbs and muscles rippling with leashed power. After what seemed like eternity, he yawned lazily and then strode back into his cave home.

In the Jawai-Bera region of Rajasthan between Udaipur and Jodhpur, the big cats roam free and live in harmony with the Rabari herdsmen and villagers who believe that the hills belong as much to the big cat as to them. Legend has it that the unspoken pact of peace also rests on local belief that the felines protect their temples and the leopards know that their human custodians will not harm them.

In this surreal wilderness, each season has its own charm — the hot summer is the best time for birdlife, especially for photographing 80-strong groups of sarus cranes near water holes. In summer, the felines emerge from their caves at the crack of dawn, and come evening they revel in the cool breeze. The monsoons mantle the landscape in shades of green while winter months are pleasantly chilly and leopard sightings are spectacular.

“Jawai is virtually a year-round destination,” said Siddharth Singh Chaudhary, managing director of  Ratan Villas, Jawai, whose open-to-nature 28-room resort (including a four-room villa) girdled by wheat fields has echoes of Jawai’s whimsical landscape of granite hills speckled with lush fields of wheat. “Safaris are easily available in the off-season whereas in the high season, the demand-supply of guests versus jeeps is a trifle skewed,” said Siddharth. And the pressure to showcase the spotted feline to guests is greater on the driver.

A leopard on a rocky ledge

A blood red palash tree blooms in wheat fields at Ratan Villas in Jawai

A rural settlment surrounded by cultivated fields

We were there in March when the undulating landscape of rugged granite hills rose like silent sentinels seeming to watch over a desolate land.

On our first morning, we embarked on a leopard safari, in a 4WD jeep expertly driven by Govind Singh Ranawat, who has a fleet of safari vehicles available for hire by tourists. We bumped along the rocky terrain interspersed occasionally with fields of wheat that rippled in the sun like a maiden’s silken tresses. Occasionally, a blood-red palash tree would rise like a totem pole softening the stony aridity and the dry bed of the Jawai river.

Granite outcrops carved and eroded by nature into bizarre shapes leered in the distance like gnarled fists pummelling the sky. In the boulders, nature has chiselled out caves where the felines live — unmolested by man. What is unique about Jawai-Bera is that it is a Leopard Conservation Reserve and is neither a national park nor sanctuary. Conservation is managed by local rangers independent of government involvement.

And in this dreamlike landscape walk the weather-beaten Rabari herdsmen with their cattle; shielding their heads from the harsh sun with tightly wound red turbans that weigh a cool one kilogram; clucking and talking tenderly to their herd. An occasional camel cart lumbers past while a man on a motorbike with his veiled wife riding pillion zips into the distance.

Jawai is about unexpected encounters... sipping goat’s milk tea with a Rabari in his makeshift dwelling against the soundtrack of mooing cows and bleating lambs; fugitive glimpses of the glass-like waters of the Jawai Dam which shelters crocodiles with mouths agape. The eerie alarm calls of antelope warning of the unseen menacing tread of the spotted cat – its pug marks engraved in the dusty road; a flying ibis with a fish in its death throes, dangling from its claws; an egret with a grasshopper in its beak; a hyena devouring the remains of a kill.

Granite boulders in weird shape

Rabari herdsman shepherds his flock

An egret with a grasshopper in its beak

And the ultimate thrill happens when Ranawat guns his jeep up a steep granite cliff called Baba Meda Hill in the neighbouring district of Sirohi (Jawai falls in Pali district) and an untamed sun-stunned landscape unfurls below.

With superb control, Ranawat steers the jeep down over the humped rocky hillock and then with the hospitality typical of locals drives us to his home in Devli village for cups of tea! His cattle moo as we sip tea concocted with fresh buffalo milk and he relates stories about some of the region’s 40 leopards with the fondness of someone who knows them well. 

Bajrangi, the leopard from near the Pakistan border, easily identified by the lighter shade of his coat, crossed over frequently to the Indian side. He was finally caught by the Forest Department and released in the Kamleshwar hills which he has now claimed as his territory. Of Neelam, the female leopard, whose ear was slashed in a fight but delivered two frolicsome cubs a while back.

The tranquil expanse of Jawai Dam

A view of the harsh arid landscape and a lake

While leopards find it easier to make off with dogs and goats that stray into their territory, they can even bring down a cow or a camel by going for the jugular of the beast. “They bury the organs and haul the meat to their cave to feast at leisure for as long as a week,” related Siddharth as we toured his former family home where he and a vast extended family spent many a summer. Siddharth has now imaginatively restored and augmented the family property and endeavoured to keep some memories intact in his  Ratan Villas resort.

A green bee eater

Sunset over Jawai lake

The former family kitchen is now a cosy library with an intact old-world chimney while what was the family dining room is now a spiffy restaurant overlooking a blue swimming pool. Whimsical elements are cleverly woven into the design of the resort like a Buddha head and a mosaic representation of the leopard, the rock star of the region.

Even today, the resort remains a place where families bond, with the laughter of guests mingling with soothing Buddhist chants or the calming notes of a Chinese flute.

That night we experienced a ‘bush dinner’ in a distant corner of the resort (which occupies five acres of a total of 47 acres). The wilderness beyond seemed to whisper to itself and the fields of wheat waved ghostly fingers at a star-veined sky. Were we imagining it or did we hear a low growl in the velvety dark?  

The leopard is the fifth-largest feline in the world (after the tiger, lion, jaguar and mountain lion). A naturalist who has studied leopard behaviour around the world told us that the most intriguing thing about the leopards in the region was their social interaction. “Leopards around the world are solitary and fiercely territorial animals. In the Jawai-Bera region, they behave more like lions and live in prides. Nowhere else are you likely to see a model of how land is managed, without man and animal conflict.”

A three-hour drive from Udaipur or Jodhpur (both have good air and rail connections), Jawai is leopard country minus the arduous regulations of Indian wildlife parks.

Ratan Villas, Jawai, Sujan Jawai, and Castle Bera, etc are luxe options. Ratan Villas, Jawai, offers comfort stirred with holistic insights into the region such as village excursions, walks with a Rabari, cycling to the dam, and excursions to Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh.