Gairatpur Bas, Haryana · Ongoing
Leopard Trail: turning a collapsing haveli into a living village hub
A ruined settlement in the Aravalli foothills rebuilt with local hands into a farm-to-table café, pottery studio and wellness space.
Gairatpur Bas sits where the Aravallis meet the edge of the Delhi sprawl — leopard country, and one of the last stretches of wild forest near the capital. The village had beautiful old stone buildings that were falling in on themselves.
Leopard Trail began as a restoration of one haveli and grew into something larger: a place where visitors from Gurgaon could eat food grown nearby, learn pottery, and understand why the ridge is worth protecting.
Built with the village, not on it
Masons from the area rebuilt the walls using the original stone. The café menu is farm-to-table from surrounding fields. The pottery and arts studio employs and trains local people, and the shrines on the property were repaired and reopened rather than removed.
The result
A ruin now earns a living for the people around it, and gives city visitors a reason to value a forest they used to drive past.
Conservation holds when it pays for itself. That is the whole idea behind the trail.
