Gilehrio: Camping By The Nature, For The Nature

Gilehrio: Camping By The Nature, For The Nature

Odisha has vast tracts of pristine land, forests and sea that are untouched by modern civilisation.
This provides the state with immense opportunities for tourism. Apart from the government’s eco tour nature camps across the state, several individuals and private organisations have recognised this potential and are doing their bit to showcase the beauty of Odisha to the world.
Gilehrio is one such private organisation that offers immersive, educative and community-led
experiences for travellers in the lap of nature. A brand under Paz Farming and Solutions Pvt Ltd,
Gilehrio was founded by Surya Mishra and three friends in December 2018.

“From the beginning, we wanted to do something that is community-led and enabled. We believe that any tourism activity that happens without community participation is either luxury tourism or is destructive to the locality. So we came up with this venture,” Surya said.
While brainstorming for a name for the new venture, the four friends realised that they shared a
common love for squirrels. So they zeroed in on ‘Gilehri’ (squirrel in Hindi). With squirrels
being friendly and curious creatures, they thought it was an appropriate name for a tourism
brand. They then modified it to ‘Gilehrio’, which sounded cute and fun.

Where To Go

The Gilehrio camp site is located 85 km away from Bhubaneswar and 7 km off Astaranga town.
It is set up on an unblemished beach in the vicinity of a village called Gundalba.
In fact, Gundalba is home to the famous Olive Ridley conservationist, Bichitrananda Biswal,
who is better known as Bichi Bhai. He has been practising conservation for more than three
decades since he was 10 years old. The camp is named after him and he looks into the nitty
gritties of its affairs. Gilehrio also employs four local youth at the camp to conduct, deliver and
enable everything there.

“For the camp, we follow four principles — something that is community led, it should be eco
sensitive, all activities planned with focus on heritage and local culture and promote stories of
local heroes,” Surya explained.
Once you reach the site, you have to park your vehicle around 300 meters away from the camp
and walk through a casuarina forest which is a breath-taking experience.
There is also the Pir Jahania shrine which is located just 1 km away from the camp.

Traditional Eats

One of the prized possessions of Odisha is its food. Hence, one of the things to experience in
rural Odisha is to eat the local cuisine served in the traditional way.
This is the case with the food at the Gilehrio camp as well. The women of Gundalba village cook
the food with love for the guests. The villagers then serve the food instead of setting up a buffet,
which is a different experience for many who visit this beautiful campsite by the Bay of Bengal.
As to the menu, it comprises local fare and focuses on vegetarian food mostly and freshly caught fish from the sea for non-vegetarians.

Unique Experiences

Gilehrio provides a boating trip to the mouth of River Devi. The duration of the trip is around 3-
4 hours and people get to learn about the different migratory birds that visit here every winter,
the life of people in nearby coastal villages and many other things.
The camp also offers a seasonal component which is turtle conservation. Gilehrio has a local
team here involved in turtle conservation. The team members also make for ideal guides for
visitors with their vast knowledge of conservation gained from years of experience.
One of the most unique experiences that Gilehrio offers is a full moon camp, a beautiful
experience by the sea on a moonlit night.

Talking about this idea of full moon camping, Surya said, “All of us here at the camp love
nature. Full moons are one of the most beautiful phenomena of nature and when you experience it by the sea it is otherworldly. We are about to start promoting the next full moon camp soon.

During full moon nights, we don’t use artificial lights. The experience is surreal. We were
booked to full capacity for the last three full moon camps.”
Gilehrio also organises pattachitra workshops for visitors at a crafts village called Dandasahi,
which is close to Raghurajpur. The award-winning pattachitra artist, Bibhu Maharana, hails from
this village and Gilehrio organises workshops with him. The workshops are of 4-5 hours duration
where the guests are introduced to the art and then they get to prepare some artwork themselves.

As a bonus, the guests also get to experience a traditional lunch at the artist’s house along with
his family.
These unique experiences have left visitors to the camp going gaga over the place, Surya said.
“The visitors are impressed by the natural beauty that is still untouched by modernity. Not just
for regular people, this place is also very stimulating for those who are engaged in creative and
artistic pursuits,” he added.

No Crowding Please

Team Gilehrio has consciously tried to restrict the number of visitors to the camp to maintain the
sanctity of the place. The team has capped the number of people who can stay at the camp at 15
because it doesn’t want the place to be crowded and noisy. In special cases, however, they can
accommodate up to 20 people. After all, a small crowd is always an intimate experience.
So far, Gilehrio has organised camps for more than 40 groups and 250 guests. Surya invites more
and more people to the camp with the message to enjoy the beauty of nature. He wants people to leave the camp cleaner than how they found it when they arrived. He also invites people to plant trees here and support the conservation efforts in whatever way possible as more than 60% of the revenue goes to the local community.

Safety First

The pandemic impacted Gilehrio too, just like everyone else. They reopened the camp in
September last year after the lockdown, but again shut it down in October as a precautionary
measure.
They reopened in November and got a very good response. “We are taking utmost care to protect the local community from the virus as it is very important for us. We have provided masks and sanitizers to everyone. We have conducted multiple training sessions for the people who work with us. Thankfully we have not contracted the virus so far,” said Surya.

Tourism Boost

So far the team has done everything independently without any help from the government.
However, Odisha Tourism has taken cognisance of Gilehrio’s efforts and invited the team for a
meeting to plan and replicate the model at other places. This was encouraging for Gilehrio,
which has started preparatory work at other places.
Gilehrio is almost ready with two other camping sites in Koraput. It has already signed an
agreement at one place and are about to sign one at the other place.
Apart from this, they are in talks with other communities at different places across the state like
in Kathajodi, Talasari and Pentha.

Talking about the potential of tourism in the state, Surya said, “The government is very keen on
tourism. It is a good sign for everyone. Odisha has such beautiful natural resources and people
should get to experience them without hampering the ecosystem,” he signed off.