Luthiya Experience

Luthiya is our closest village and sits right above us behind the ridge that overlooks Khetiyo on the North. Khetiyo and Luthiya were at some point the same village. But the wilderness drove the Khetiyo residents to move away and form a bigger village behind the ridge.

For any village community in garhwal, cattle and goats form an important source of livelihood. Most of these people depend on the forest for their feed. Grazing in the forest has been the biggest reason for man animal conflict with cattle being killed and revenge killing by the villagers. In addition, the grazing along with population increase has put an unnecessary pressure on the protected areas. This experience allows the visitors understand the critical conservation issues that face wildlife protection in India. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and comment on India’s failure to conserve its forests. This is a chance to actually understand the complexity of the problem. Visitors accompany the villager on his grazing rounds into the buffer areas. It is a chance to not only explore unexplored parts of the woods but also interact with a villager in a comfortable setting. You will also be accompanied by a naturalist for wildlife spotting along the way. Typically, this activity lasts about 3 hours and ends around lunch time. You can come back to Khetiyo and relax for the rest of the day reading books on the machaan overlooking the Khetiyo Estate.