Verdant is not a word or a concept associated with the wild, dry and rugged terrain of Gujarat. In that sense, the gentle mounds of Saputara and the languorously stretching valleys around it make it quite a novelty.
A sleepy, frozen in time, hidden from the eye kind of beauty that Gujarat Tourism is ambitiously trying to open up as a monsoon retreat. Yes, the relentless dhaani green moss on the ancient walls, the wanton teak and sal wilderness all around, the table hill from where you can soothe your eyes and senses with a green as envy valley below clinging to the silvery Sarpganga lake like a couple who has just defeated death, provide Saputara its velvety, gossamer dreams.
But even if you ignore the debate around developing untouched natural havens like Saputara and mainstream integration of tribes (this one belongs to the largely marginalised Dangs adivasis), there is still the question of infrastructure which we all know is the deadliest foe of Nature, an asset you are trying to exploit for gains that can come from elsewhere too.
After their rather surprising success with the Kutch winter festival which runs through a prolonged three-month period, and its dulcet introduction through the pedigreed baritone of none less than mota bhai Amitabh Bachchan, Saputara seems like another place-another time kind of venture ridden with pitfalls like distance and ordinariness.
Taking the Kutch route, Saputara is being made to tussle its way onto the tourist map of India through a monsoon festival. For now, it is an apology of a festival, being propelled by sundry arts crafts and evening jaadu shows which can regale only the uninitiated locals, if at all.
But, if developed carefully and cleverly (Gujarat Tourism is building a go-karting circuit and boasts of a ropeway connecting two hills), this green mile of Gujarat could become an event propelled destination, like the Khajuraho dance festival, the Arunachal rock festival and the Sula music festival which have come out of nowhere to bring untouched beauties and sometimes just plain Jane places like Nasik to public imagination.
How about something like the great Adivasi Jam Fest for Saputara. Food, craft and culture of Indian tribes from all over completely zoning out the gentry with their unknown and undeveloped mores of life would be something to draw the heritage and culture tourist in.
Virtually sleeping undisturbed on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border, Saputara begs for better accommodation despite the sprawling GTDC property at its mouth. As all Government properties go, even the Toran Hill Resort, Saputara (rather ambitiously titled as a resort) gives basic accommodation in huge rooms and bigger corridors. Just if the Government would shed its comprehensive unkemptness and spruce this property up, it could give all big and small staying places a run for their money.
It takes barely 10 to 15 minutes to get out of Toran and encircle the whole of the same-level Saputara. A quaint marketplace selling the signature Nagali papads, tribal artifacts as also dry fruits like raisins, which grow nowhere in the near miles of this area, it is an off-day treat to interact with locals over a plate of khatti-meethi kairi doused in masala, guavas and, well, Maggi made the weird way.
What’s good for now in Saputara is that it is eco-friendly with no plastic bags dotting its terrain. The centrepiece Sarpganga lake is clean, quiet and navigated by hand-drawn boats only, saying no to pollution — for now, when the traffic is minimalistic and limited to bhajan mandalis taking a drive off Shirdi, old women groups from nearby towns and also people driving up to the tabletop mountain for a picnic break from Surat. Other than that, there’s very little happening here if, that is, boys playing tic-tac-toe on their mobile phones and others asking you to get photographed, rather funnily holding a guitar, interest you.
But yes, uneventfulness can be a break too and that’s where Saputara comes in, only if you are visiting Surat or some such nearby town on a hectic work schedule. Mumbai is five-six hours away on the road while Surat just 179 km off the hill road which meanders down alongside a happily gurgling stream all the way down to where the greens meet the concrete of the Expressway to bring you back to the reality grind.