Pugdundee Safaris Announces Second Edition Of Mahua Festival Across Central India

Experience Central India’s Living Heritage

Pugdundee Safaris has announced the second edition of its Mahua Festival, scheduled from April 1–5, 2026, across five of its jungle lodges: Kings Lodge and Tree House Hideaway in Bandhavgarh, Kanha Earth Lodge in Kanha, Pench Tree Lodge in Pench, and Denwa Backwater Escape in Satpura. Celebrating the Mahua tree and its profound cultural significance for local communities, the festival weaves together ecology, heritage, and traditional practices that have shaped life in Central India for centuries.

Curated by Pugdundee Safaris’s team of naturalists and chefs, in collaboration with Chef Harshita Kakwani, a forest food curator and consultant chef with Pugdundee Safaris, the festival highlights the Mahua tree’s importance beyond culinary uses, emphasising its role as a source of livelihood and a sacred connection between forests and local communities.

Every spring, Mahua trees shed their fragrant golden flowers - never plucked, only gathered once they fall - in keeping with nature’s cycle. Before dawn, women from local Adivasi communities enter the forests to collect the blossoms by hand, carefully drying and storing them for use throughout the year. For generations, Mahua has sustained households through nutrition, medicine, rituals and income, making it one of the most vital forest resources across tribal belts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.

The Mahua Festival by Pugdundee Safaris offers guests an opportunity to witness and engage with this living heritage through thoughtfully curated experiences. These include guided spring foraging walks led by naturalists, hands-on interactions such as making natural Holi colours using forest flowers like palash and turmeric, and forest-to-table moments that showcase traditional practices such as pattal making followed by curated meals. Evenings will feature storytelling, art-led sessions, Mahua-infused beverages and select local performances that reflect the cultural fabric of the region.

Speaking on the objective of the Festival, Manav Khanduja, Co-Founder, Pugdundee Safaris, said, “The Mahua Festival is our way of honouring a tree that quietly sustains entire ecosystems and communities. This is not about showcasing a product, but about recognising Mahua as a symbol of coexistence, where forests, people and culture thrive together. By creating these immersive experiences, we hope guests leave with a deeper understanding of indigenous knowledge systems and the responsibility that comes with engaging meaningfully with the wild.”

Cooking and tasting sessions during the week will explore Mahua in its many traditional forms, from fresh to dried and soaked to roasted, highlighting how forest produce is used with restraint and respect. While each lodge will offer a limited-edition Mahua-inspired menu available only during Mahua Festival, the focus remains on contextual storytelling rather than replication, with each Lodge presenting interpretations shaped by local traditions and communities.

In addition to lodge-based experiences, guests will have opportunities to observe seasonal village life, including early morning Mahua flower collection, visits to local markets and interactions that reveal how forest produce supports daily livelihoods. Cultural performances will further offer glimpses into rituals and traditions where the Mahua tree holds sacred importance.

Through the Mahua Festival, Pugdundee Safaris continues its commitment to responsible tourism -one that celebrates living cultures, supports local communities and foregrounds the delicate balance between conservation and livelihoods. The festival stands as a tribute to the forest communities who continue to safeguard this ancestral legacy, ensuring that Mahua remains a symbol of resilience, prosperity and harmony with nature.