Inside Aramness Gir, The Lodge That Puts Gujarat's Wild Country First

Sasan Gir, in the Junagadh district of Gujarat, is the only place on earth where Asiatic Lions and humans share land in something approaching genuine, functional coexistence. Wildlife conservationist and photographer Jimmy Patel grew up understanding this. He built Aramness—the name combines the Gujarati words for rest (aram) and village (ness)—directly on the national park’s boundary.

The Lodge

Aramness has 18 private kothis—15 single-bedroom villas and three double-bedroom family units—each with its own shaded courtyard, private plunge pool inspired by Indian step wells, and verandahs tucked under clay-tiled roofs facing rewilded meadows that back onto teak forest. The interiors feel grounded with hand-carved sandstone jali screens throw lacework shadows across whitewashed walls, wooden swings hang from brass chains, Kutchi lippan work—an ancient mud and mirror art form— adorns the surfaces, and handwoven Gujarati textiles run through the cushions and charpoy loungers on the upper verandahs.

The architectural language, designed through a collaboration between Fox Browne Creative and Nicholas Plewman Architects, draws from the neighbouring village of Haripur—otlas, chowks, jharokas—so that the built environment feels continuous with its surroundings. The central Haveli houses the dining hall, library, and lounge. Whereas, the Craft Gallery, which carries textiles, and artefacts, and the Wellness Centre sits separately on the property. The Pool House with its infinity pool faces the forest.

The Safari

Each game drive vehicle is capped at four adults and one child—a decision that costs the lodge revenue and that Aramness is transparent about: the quality of a sighting degrades fast when it becomes a crowd.  An in-house naturalist accompanies every drive alongside a Gujarat Forest Department guide. The lodge works with local gypsy owners for safari vehicles, a deliberate choice that keeps earnings circulating within the community. The programme covers the full range of the park: Asiatic lion, leopard, striped hyena, mugger crocodile, paradise flycatcher, and over 300 documented bird species including the endangered Lesser Florican. An 18-square-kilometre teak forest corridor connecting the lodge to the national park facilitates guided birding and jungle walks alongside morning and afternoon drives—the birding alone, across forest, scrub, and grassland, is serious enough to warrant a dedicated itinerary. For younger guests, the Junior Naturalist Programme runs children through hands-on activities in the forest, building the kind of early familiarity with wild places that tends to last considerably longer than the stay itself.

The Food

The Kitchen philosophy at Aramness is local, seasonal, and structurally farm-to-fork—the edible garden and fruit orchard were designed alongside the weekly menus. Every ingredient travels within 50 kilometres, and is sourced from the Talala taluka’s local farmers. The lodge sits inside a mango orchard and mangoes move through the kitchen year-round as raw chutneys, curries, and sweets. The culinary programme , conceptualised by Kamini Patel of Kitchen Therapy, rotates across several dining formats. The Haveli Dining experience serves the Kansa Thali—a Gujarati spread on plates made from an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin that is roughly 5,000 years old and said to aid digestion—alongside dishes from Parsi, Muslim, and royal Gujarati traditions. The Village Dinner is staged in the garden on low bajot tables with live folk music and lantern light, with the Matla Chicken as its centrepiece—a whole bird stuffed with seasonal greens, wrapped in banana leaves, and cooked in an overturned terracotta pot set on fire. The Jungle BBQ runs under open sky, with tawa cooking drawing from old Ahmedabad tradition. The Garden Pavilion serves farm-to-fork meals through the day, its menu determined by what the edible garden yielded that morning. The Pool House offers a lighter, more informal register—wood-fired pizzas and globally inspired menus for those who want the forest view without the ceremony. Guests can also take their sundowners into the forest itself—sunset picnics amidst the teak, with the light doing what it does in Gir in the hour before dark. The morning wake-up tray—fresh juice and dry fruits delivered to the kothi before dawn in a brass dabbi, before the pre-game drive coffee follows—is a small detail that makes every city hotel's alarm-clock breakfast feel like something to apologise for.

Wellness

The Wellness Centre at Aramness operates as a counterpoint to the pace of the safari. Here, treatments are designed to restore the balance that the forest already begins to shift. These include soothing massages to settle muscles after a drive, sound healing sessions with singing bowls and gong, and daily yoga in a dedicated pavilion overlooking the infinity pool and the teak forest. Apart from this, a fully equipped gym sits alongside the Yoga Pavillion for those who prefer to workout. Consultations with Dr. Jabbar, the property’s in-house wellness expert, are available for guests who want a more considered wellness programme across their stay. The spa has individual and couples’ treatment rooms, each with steam facilities and quieter relaxation areas. The intent across all of it is a digital detox that runs way deeper than switching the phone off.

The Sustainability Commitments

At Aramness, sustainability is structural. Seventy-five per cent of grey water is recycled through on-site treatment plants and redirected to irrigate the lodge gardens. Kitchen waste feeds a biogas plant that produces both cooking fuel and biofertiliser for the edible garden. Aramness was the first hospitality property in Gir to install an in-house water bottling plant, eliminating single-use plastic across the entire property. Sixty per cent of staff come from the neighbouring village of Haripur. Five thousand indigenous trees have been planted on the property since the project began. The lodge deliberately limits its room inventory so that each kothi has green space around it—a decision with a direct cost to occupancy and a direct benefit to the surrounding wilderness.

Beyond the Gates

The Maldhari community visit is part of the stay itinerary, so as to give the guests an understanding on who has lived alongside these lions, and how it is a part of what Aramness is asking its guests to reckon with. Beyond the park boundary, the surrounding region carries its own considerable weight. Junagadh, 32 kilometres away, has the Uparkot Fort and two ancient step wells, Adi-Kadi Vav and Navghan Kuvo, both hewn from stone. The Girnar mountain—a sacred Jain and Hindu pilgrimage site with five peaks and temples dating back centuries—rises from the same district. The Somnath Temple, one of the 12 Maha Jyotirlinga shrines, sits on the Arabian Sea coast 45 kilometres from the property. Back at the property, guests can work with local artisans on pottery sessions.

How to Reach Aramness

Keshod Airport is 35 kilometres away, with direct flights from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Surat, and Rajkot. There are also direct flights to Diu, which is 120 minutes from Aramness by road.

The lions were always here. The question was simply what kind of stay was worthy of that fact. Aramness is one answer to it.