Pratapgarh travel guide

Pratapgarh sits in the far south-east corner of Rajasthan, where the Malwa plateau, the Vindhyan hills and the end of the Aravallis meet. Maharawat Pratap Singh founded the present town in the late 17th century, after the earlier capital at Devgarh was judged an uncomfortable place to live. It became a district only in 2008, and it still has the unhurried feel of a small administrative town rather than a tourist stop.

What brings visitors is a short list of unusual things. Sita Mata Wildlife Sanctuary, about 423 sq km of dry deciduous forest shared with Chittorgarh district, is one of the few places in Rajasthan with a population of large brown flying squirrels, and it carries the tradition that Sita lived here with the sage Valmiki. Pratapgarh is also the home of Thewa, a jewellery craft that fuses thin gold sheet onto coloured glass and has stayed in a handful of families for centuries.

The rest is quiet scenery: the Gautameshwar Mahadev shrine near Arnod, the Jakham reservoir, the ruined palace area at Devgarh, and Bhanwar Mata temple near Chhoti Sadri. Facilities are basic and distances between sights are long, so this suits travellers with a car, patience and a taste for places that are not on every itinerary.

For families and older travellers, the honest summary is that Pratapgarh is easy on crowds and hard on logistics. There is no railway in the district at the time of writing, hotels are few and simple, and the best wildlife time is dusk. Two nights with a hired car, ideally combined with Chittorgarh or Mandsaur, is a sensible shape for a trip.