Unexplored Bastar

Unexplored Bastar is a travel startup based on social entrepreneurship model from Bastar, Chhattisgarh. It is focused on sustainable tourism through a community-based approach. Seven years back, Unexplored Bastar started as a Facebook page but its actual journey as a Tourism Promotion Agency and Travel organization started in 2016 when one of the co-founder of Facebook page Jeet Singh Arya decided to leave the corporate and work on ground level for the tourism promotion of Bastar and involving local tribal community in the tourism sector and since then Unexplored Bastar has been working tirelessly along with endorsing the various natural as well as historical sites present in Bastar and its endowed tribal culture to the populous in Indian subcontinent and outside. It started offering exclusively customized Bastar tour packages through social media infusion and with an active participation of various stakeholders in these tours categorized under Bastar Eco Tours, Bastar Adventure Tours and Bastar Ethno Tours or Bastar Cultural tour, it enabled successful implementation of the same proposed activities. Meanwhile, Unexplored Bastar also started organizing several other promotional events with the support from Chhattisgarh Tourism Board, District Administration of Bastar and Dantewada and other local partners in the lieu to change the perception of the visitors who thought of Bastar as a conflict zone. The entire approach is also followed by large-scale involvement of local tribal people with the support of APS, an NGO from Bastar which in addition led to generate livelihoods for them. This included activities like providing stay to tourists at their home, their assistance as local guides and an opportunity to sell their mass-produced handicrafts to tourists visiting Bastar. Presently, Unexplored Bastar is impacting lives of 200+ Bastar tribal youths. Unexplored Bastar has a tie-up with an NGO, named APS, which has trained approximately 240 local tribal people in the