An owner-run river safari through the Chambal gorge — safe, personal, and rooted in local knowledge. From the team behind Jawai Safari.
Chambal Boat Safari is a small, owner-run river safari on the Chambal gorge near Kota, Rajasthan. We take a limited number of guests each day through one of India's last clean rivers — past basking crocodiles and gharials, otters on the banks, and cliffs alive with more than 300 species of birds.
We are the team behind Jawai Safari, one of Rajasthan's trusted names for leopard safaris in the state's famous "leopard country." Running Jawai taught us something simple but easy to forget in tourism: guests remember trips that are run personally, kept safe, and grounded in real local knowledge — not the ones packaged and sold in bulk.
When we saw how few people knew about the quiet beauty of the Chambal gorge on Kota's doorstep, we decided to bring that same philosophy here. Chambal Boat Safari is the result: the same hands-on hospitality, the same attention to safety and detail, now on the water.
Chambal Boat Safari is run by its two founders, Jishan Ali Mansuri and Shaurya Bathla — the partners behind CAT Hospitality LLP and Jawai Safari. Between them they have built a name in Rajasthan wildlife tourism on a single principle: run fewer trips, and run them properly. When you book, you deal with the owners.
Jishan co-founded CAT Hospitality LLP and Jawai Safari, one of Rajasthan's most respected leopard-safari operations. He leads guest experience and safety at Chambal Boat Safari, drawing on years spent building a reputation in Jawai's leopard country — where trust is earned one careful, well-guided outing at a time.
Shaurya co-founded CAT Hospitality LLP and is a partner in Jawai Safari, with deep experience across Rajasthan's wildlife-tourism circuit. He runs operations on the ground — boatmen, guides, drivers and logistics — so every Chambal safari is as smooth and well-timed in practice as it looks on paper.
"We would rather take a handful of guests down the Chambal and get every detail right than run a crowd through it. That's how we learned to do wildlife tourism in Jawai — and it's exactly how we do it here."— Jishan Ali Mansuri & Shaurya Bathla, Founders
The Chambal is one of the cleanest rivers left in northern India and a stronghold for the critically endangered gharial, mugger crocodile, smooth-coated otters and hundreds of resident and migratory birds. We run every cruise with respect for that fragile balance, because we believe the surest way to protect this landscape is to let people quietly fall in love with it — and then want to keep it wild.
Chambal Boat Safari is operated by CAT Hospitality LLP, the same company behind Jawai Safari. The boat safari is our flagship in Kota — and we've grown into complete Kota experiences: city sightseeing, day trips across the Hadoti region, taxis and transfers, and handpicked stays. Whether you come for the river, the wildlife, the heritage, or just need a comfortable base to explore from, you have one trusted local team to plan it all with.
Two scenic routes · daily departures, Oct–Jun · ₹2,200 per person
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