Environmental projects

Based in India's National Parks and indigenous communities, volunteers live and work in a remote forest environment. These environmental projects allow volunteers to see the best that Indian wildlife has to offer, understand the politics of conservation and develop an environmentally founded conscience.

Here are some examples of volunteer projects you may be working on. Please be aware that these may change and are just a guide to the types of environmental projects we work on during a Raleigh expedition

Solar elephant-proof fencing, Anaikatty
This environmental project is based in this tribal village, home to indigenous communities. Volunteers will be helping to construct solar powered electric fences and dig elephant-proof trenches around the villages and cultivated lands to prevent elephants and humans clashing in an attempt to prevent loss of life on both sides.

These communities are dependent on collection of non timber forest products and agriculture for their livelihoods. But there is significant pressure on the forests and elephants and wild boar are frequently leaving the forest to forage for cultivated crops, which represent easier pickings than increasingly scarce food sources in the forest. This creates conflict between man and wildlife, and in particular elephants. Both elephants and people are killed or seriously injured regularly in violent encounters and the problem is very serious.

Ranger station environmental project, Bandipur
Raleigh, in partnership with Karnataka Forest Department, will refurbish a 100 year-old guest house deep inside Bandipur National Park. The guest house was constructed in 1908 by the Maharaja and has laid empty, falling into disrepair. Volunteers will completely renovate the guest house adding sanitation and water services in order for it to be utilised by the Forestry Department as a permanently manned ranger station serving the Chowdhalli Range - an important habitat for tigers, elephant and many other key species.

Raleigh volunteers will be camping in the national park and working together on this environmental project to provide sustainable hides for Park rangers and environmental scientists to monitor natural habitat and wildlife. By volunteering on this project, they will be helping to prevent, and catch illegal poachers who poach both wildlife and wood.

All of our volunteer projects are sustainable and genuinely needed by the communities we work in. Find out more about how we plan our projects and our project partners in India