In October, students from PS secondary school in Chennai joined Indiahikes for an outdoor leadership program. Around 60 students and 6 teachers started their adventure for the Dayara Bugyal trek.

The program's primary objective was to empower them with deep learnings of resilience, confidence, coping with hardships, empathy, and working together in teams. 

On the first day, they arrived at the Indiahikes Raithal Campus, and the team was buzzing with excitement and anticipation! 

Briefing session for the students before the trek!

Before their restful sleep, the trek leaders divided the students into separate groups and taught them the basics of backpacking. From thereon, the students were to work actively with their own team members throughout the program. 

PS school students engaging in group activities

They woke up to a bright morning and were briefed about what the program had in store for them. The students couldn't wait to begin their day with interesting activities!

Various tasks were lined up for them on day 1. First, they engaged in team-building activities followed by reflections and many new learnings. 

During the reflections, students shared their feelings about the game and how much they had learnt from it. They bonded with their team members, understood each other's strengths, and discovered the unique trait of their friends. 

After this, they also learnt the basics of trekking. Some topics the trek leaders covered were: how to use trekking gear, how to trek safely, and much more. After the session, they were ready for their adventure! 

Students assembled to participate in fun activities

During the trek, the prettiness of the views were accompanied by the warmth and helpfulness of the students. They supported each other, pushed themselves, looked out for their team, and were mindful of everyone's needs. After trekking for five hours, they finally reached Gui. 

They finished the day with another reflection session. This time, the students shared that they realized the importance of teamwork, having a team leader, distributing roles and responsibilities amongst themselves, and trusting each other. 

Students discussing their experience so far

The next day, they trekked from Gui to Chilapada. To prepare for their venture, the students assembled for an energetic workout session in the morning.

The day was filled with beauty and surprises. They crossed the dense golden oak forest, vibrant waterfalls, and stark blue skies! 

Students enjoyed the streams for a few moments

When they reached Chilapada, the students built their homes in the mountains - they learnt how to pitch their own tents! The next day was a big day for them all! They had come all the way together, and they were soon going to climb the summit. The air was bustling with thrill and eagerness. 

The team building their own homes in the mountains

The next day, the students woke up very soon, and got ready for the summit day. They trekked for a few hours and reached the Dayara meadows. They were welcomed with the majestic views of the meadows. 

Students were welcomed by the Davara meadows

After they navigated all the challenges and wonders of the mountains, they finally made it to the summit! 

Many students were overwhelmed with emotions. They took some precious moments to lay down and soak in the beauty around them. With their eyes closed and bodies embraced by the mountain lands, they connected with themselves and fell into a deep silence. 

Students enjoying the beauty and peace of the mountain

It was a memorable day for all of them. They opened up to new experiences, had plenty of learnings. Many students also poured out their emotions on a postcard. 

Two students enjoying the views of the summit

The students lit up the summit by celebrating their wins and spending time with all the other members. They also made chai with the stove and canister! 

A student learning how to make chai on the summit

The celebrations and joy didn't stop there though. They continued to sing songs, and engage in conversations even after reaching Gui! 

The morning after they returned from the summit, they got the chance to share their thoughts and feelings about the trek. The program was a great success and students were deeply satisfied with their experience. They saw new sides of themselves that they weren't aware of, practiced teamwork, made meaningful friendships, and took back very strong life lessons. 

A team member enjoying the views of the mountains

From learning about sustainability to opening up about personal fears - we observed extraordinary changes in the students! 

Schools from all over India are joining our programs designed specifically for students. Do get in touch with us if you want your students to learn life values and encounter unique experiences! 

Indiahikes conducted an experiential learning trek for students from PS secondary school, Chennai

Outdoor leadership program, life values, sustainability, friendship, resilience 

Indiahikes Conducted An Experiential Learning Trek for Students From PS Secondary School, Chennai

Learning how to lead or work in a team is not easy.  Even if you are part of a team, chances are that you are not being an ideal team member or a leader.  As strong as this statement may seem, it is the hard truth. 

Many organizations fail to reach their full potential even with the best idea and the best product primarily because of this.  While hierarchical leadership has its place in the organizations, the modern work world also requires teams to practice collaborative leadership at all levels. 

Young professionals who have a few years of work experience need these collaborative leadership skills to better succeed in their professional life.  While they pick up some of these skills as they work, it takes them years and a lot of dedicated effort to do so.  

Several organizations and management schools try to address this gap with theoretical frameworks, but it is not easy to put them into practice.  

This is where our Collaborative Leadership Program helps address this gap. Unlike theoretical learning, the learning that participants get from the program is deeply internalized. It becomes a part of their being. The experience changes them. The best Management schools in India understand this. That is why some of the top IIMs bring their students on this program every year.  

The program is designed to help participants practice collaborative leadership — they learn to share control and avoid power struggle, to create an environment that enables others to lead in their area of responsibility, to build connections with other teams and stakeholders and to leverage the diversity in a team and tap its collective intelligence.

In a matter of a 4-day trek, the participants come back better prepared to handle the collaborative demands of their organization. 

I saw this unfold firsthand in August, when I helped facilitate a Collaborative Leadership Program for students of Goa Institute of Management. Today, I want to share 4 concrete ways in which each of them came back home as better collaborative leaders.   

A little bit about the Collaborative Leadership Program 

Before I dive into the lessons that came out of the program, I want to share some background on the Collaborative Leadership Program. 

The Collaborative Leadership Program is an Experiential Learning Program. The participants are put together in teams of 7-10.  They are then given the challenge of planning and executing an entire trek. The support from Indiahikes is minimal. They trek together, navigate the trail, set up and wind up camp (this comes with preparing their own meals as well).  

A big part of the collaborative leadership program is the execution of the trek, for which the participants are in charge.

While Indiahikes supports them intensively on day 1, we slowly shift the responsibility of the trek execution on them. By the end of day 3, the success of the trek depends entirely on how collaboratively they function as a team.

The act of doing the entire trek together in unknown settings puts them out of their comfort zone. Over the 4 days, doing the trek together while reflecting on how they worked as a team brings out the learning from their experience.  

An outline of how the program started off with the students of Goa Institute of Management:

The MBA students of Goa Institute of Management (GIM) had joined this program on our Hampta Pass trek, a moderate trek that goes to a highest altitude of 14,000 ft.  

On day 1, the team was a collection of 34 individuals who wanted to take a break from their busy schedules. They looked at it as a vacation in the mountains. Apart from 2-3 students who had done a Himalayan trek, none of the others had trekked before. They had no understanding of the challenge of the trek, or what it takes to execute a trek by themselves.  

Knowing that they had to complete the trek as a team, they put down their plan as to how they would go about it. They also put down the norms under which they would operate as a team. They knew that to succeed in the trek, they needed to leverage each other’s strengths and work together as a team. 

But that was the extent of their understanding. 

They did not factor in the physical and mental limitations of team members, the hardships on a high-altitude trek, where a simple task like cooking a meal can test your mettle. They did not consider what it meant to stick together as a team through these hardships.  

Sticking together as a team the high-altitude has its challenges. Knowing this, the team a plan together on how to go about it. Sandeep UC

They had a challenging Day 2.  They struggled physically and mentally.  

Many of them who were physically weaker suffered from the challenges of the trek.  They were unable to carry their backpack. They couldn’t keep up with the pace required for them to complete the day’s trek.

Many also developed symptoms of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) — headache, fatigue and bad case of vomiting.  A lot of them also developed loose motions.    

The stronger team members stepped up in different ways. Some shared the load of others, some took on the role of personally assisting people. 

But I could see the teams crumbling by the end of Day 2.  They were all 2 hours behind the average trekking time. In the team of 34, apart from 9 fit participants, the others were physically suffering. As time went by, the idea of how they wanted to work as a team was heavily tested. 

The situation was dire. At the beginning of Day 3, I gathered them together. I told them that we were not going to cross the pass. I told them that they were not ready for the challenge of the trek.

While they did what they could to support each other, they were not collaborating as leaders.  They did not own the trek.  They did not confront each other and held each other accountable.  They did not feel that they had equal stakes on the success of the program.  

I told them that if they wanted to cross the pass, they needed to change how they worked. 

By the end of day 4, things took a U-turn. Not only did they cross the Hampta pass, they crossed it 2 hours ahead of the predicted time. 

I have to put things in perspective here. Our regular well prepared trekkers generally take about 12 hours to cross the Hampta pass. Here was a team of young students who were not physically prepared for the trek, did not know how to trek, did not have weather on their side, and the team was much larger than our regular teams. 

In a collaborative situation, participants learnt to put the team before their own self interest

When the program started, they all started in very good spirits. They set norms for themselves as a team, put all their management strategies in action and started well. 

They wanted to succeed as a team.  Yet when the situation became dire and they were told that they cannot cross the pass, their initial reaction was disappointment and frustration.  They said that they had come all this way not to go back but to cross the pass.  

They were even willing to leave behind their weaker team members and cross the pass without them. The team’s goal didn’t matter.  Their self interest came first.  

On the other hand, the ones who suffered immensely on day 2 said that we should allow people who could cross the pass to go ahead.  They were willing to step aside and not give their best for their team.  They were willing to let go of the goal for the fear of pulling others down. 

This is a normal human reaction to a challenging situation. We are tuned to put our self interest over the interest of the team or the organisation.  But organisations are not designed for such behaviours.  Organisations can very well die if every team member behaves this way. 

Our program mimicked that.  I told them that this cannot be. We would not cross the pass, unless everyone of us could cross the pass.  Unless they decided to collectively quit the program, we would not leave anyone behind. That was our reality. 

This forced them to reconsider their initial affirmation. They realised the weight of what it meant when I said that they would not succeed if they did not work collaboratively.  They had to rethink how they looked at success.  

Every organisation goes through their ups and downs. While we are comfortable sticking to the team norms during our high times, we tend to focus on ourselves when the down time hits the team.  

During that time, learning to take a step back and put the team’s interest above the interest of self is what helps the team get to success. 

It was a hard hitting lesson for GIM students to understand what it meant to prioritise the team’s interest over their own self. 

Participants learnt that the stakes of the team members are the same as the stakes of the assigned leader 

When the students realised that they were either crossing the pass together or quitting together, the dynamics changed. The stakes suddenly got real. It was not enough for a few to do their best.  It was mandated that everyone did their best.  

On Day 2 in the evening, before I started a meeting with them, many were complaining about how tough the program was. Some felt guilty of asking for help. They felt that they were pulling the team down. The morale was down. 

Immediately after our conversation, there was a shift in how the teams went about Day 3 of the trek. They were not mere passengers. They became active participants. They held themselves accountable for their performance.  They also collaborated better for their team’s performance.   

In the working world, we are often taught that team leaders have a higher stake in the outcome of the work, whereas in reality, every team member (junior or senior) has an equal stake in the outcome. Teams that are able to instil this sense of emotional ownership end up achieving more than what they set out to do.   

This outlook is hard to rewire as it's so deeply ingrained in most work cultures these days.  But the program design forced it as an outcome.  

Participants learnt to have uncomfortable conversations rather than to accept comfortable disharmony

As the students learnt to take ownership of the team’s success and failures, they also learnt to have uncomfortable conversations. 

I remember an instance clearly. We were on our way to Balu Ka Gera.  We stopped to do a small exercise as a team.  The team succeeded in finishing the exercise, but they took a long time to achieve the end result — reflecting on how they were working together as a team.  A group of 8 did not have an assigned leader yet and they were struggling to optimise their performance as a team.  

Having uncomfortable conversations is a part of coming together in Collaborative Leadership. Photo by Vishwajeet Chavan

When one student voluntarily tried to take charge, the rest of them wouldn’t listen. I could also clearly see that this student was not feeling good about it. This led to an unspoken disharmony in the team. 

When I shared this observation with the team, they denied the need for a leader. They said that they were happy with everyone taking turns as leaders.  When I pointed out that this was stopping them from doing their best, they outright denied it. 

Then I shared my observation about how the student who was trying to take charge was ignored by the others. 

What are you gaining by your strategy? I asked them. 

I had opened up a can of worms. One said that assigning a leader would mean that others would not take up responsibility. Another said that being a leader among peers would not work. Another said that usually being a leader means also getting disproportionate gains, more than other individuals in the team.  

I remarked these notions were exactly what we were trying to unlearn through collaborative leadership.  There can be leaders among peers. Being a leader does not mean he/she is the sole owner of responsibility.  Being an active participant did not mean abdicating ownership or responsibility. And defining clear leaders for different responsibilities can bring more joy than ignoring the need for one. 

Squirming from within, they rethought their ideas of leadership, sharing responsibility and taking ownership — things that were so far unsaid between all of them. At the end of the reflection, not only did they acknowledge that they needed a leader, they also acknowledged and thanked the student’s effort in being one. 

In a modern working world, teams that work best are the ones that are willing to look at their dysfunctions. They acknowledge it and get better at it. This requires team members to be vulnerable, be humble — things that are not often in our comfort zone. In a work setting, it takes a long time to understand how to do this without getting our egos bruised. 

The program design, however, forced these reflections out of them. Students could not move forward without accepting their mistakes. They needed to be vulnerable and look beyond their ego to open up to other team members. When others pointed out their weaknesses they needed the humility to accept it. It was only after these qualities emerged that they could break the walls around themselves and mould themselves as a team. 

Participants learnt that focusing on collective success results in disproportionate individual success

Once we reached Balu ka Gera, the penultimate camp, I had my doubts whether the team could cross the pass the next day. I was not sure if the team was ready for the challenge. It was a gruelling 11 hours of trekking through snow and moraine, in the thin air of 14,000+ ft. 

In our game design we usually put responsibility for such big decisions on the team themselves.  

I got the team together and put forward the problem in as black and white a situation as possible. I told them that they had to decide if they wanted to cross the pass. But it had a criteria that had to be fulfilled. They had to either cross the pass together or quit. Even if they quit they had to return together. 

In addition we put another constraint on them. We would not cross the pass unless everyone hit a certain milestone by 9 am — about 60% of the distance to the pass. We knew that if they could reach the milestone by 9 am, we would have the right pace to reach the pass. But reaching this milestone was not going to be easy. It was a steady climb through rocky terrain of the alpine zone.  

We put the onus on the team. They were the decision-makers and drivers of the next day. The Indiahikes team would keep an eye on the proceedings but we would be bystanders. 

(I’ll be honest here. Even though I had opened up the possibility of them crossing the pass, I was not very optimistic. Not only was their physical endurance a question, they had a substantial distance to cover, plus they were climbing and descending more than 2000 ft one way. To succeed, they needed to not just collaborate within their team of 7-10 members, but among all 34 members. I had my doubts.)

Each team individually discussed in detail what they would do. Their team leaders then collaborated on their strategies. One said that the fastest team should start and set the pace. Another said that they should send the slowest trekkers ahead and have them follow someone who can set a steady pace.  They also planned who would do what from the moment they woke up. 

Unfolding before my eyes was a team whose summit expedition had already begun an evening before they started. And they were all in it together. 

Then I started to see collaborative leadership truly emerge in action.

My first surprise came the next day. The team woke up at 2.30 am without a wake up call by the Indiahikes team. This was a first. 

Next, they got ready and were out of the camp by 4 am. It was pitch dark outside. The teams were out with their headlamps and torches. 

Getting out of their tents was something they had taken hours to do on the first three days — in broad daylight. Yet, here they were out in the cold in the dead of the night, winding camps, packing their meals, rolling their sleeping bags and packing their backpacks. 

They were in continuous collaboration with each other. They sent the slower members ahead to set a moderate pace.  Strong team members took turns with slow team members and kept motivating them.  They did not allow their morale to go down for a second. As we kept climbing, the sun came out.  The heat started to get to them.  But they kept going forward. They ensured that the first member of the team could see the last member. They stuck together. 

It did not take until 9 am for them to reach the milestone. All 34 of them exceeded their own expectations and reached the milestone at 8.30 am. The team was jubilant. 

The pass didn’t matter. The real victory was felt and celebrated here. To them, they had achieved something that was well beyond their means.  

However, the Hampta Pass challenge had just started. The team had 9 hours of trekking ahead. 9 hours at around 14,000 feet, in steep and difficult terrain. They were now in an alpine zone, trudging on hard scree and moraine. Big boulder sections lay ahead. 

Hampta Pass is not an easy trek. It has steep ascends and descends. Sticking together through these challenges needed the students to collaborate. Photo by Jothiranjan

These sections are unforgiving for people who do not have steady legs.  Yet they kept their pace.  The sun was harsh and unforgiving.  Yet they stuck together — helping each other with ORS and water.  The altitude pushed students to the brink. Many started showing symptoms of AMS.  Still they stuck together and pushed each other to the pass. 

Everyone reached the pass at a considerable time.  The first and the last person were just half an hour apart - this was unthinkable on day 1.  

They were worn out. Yet, they had come up just one way. They still had 3 more hours of gruelling steep descent.  Steady footed mules slip and fall in this descent and here were students who were drained completely needing to keep their head and feet together. 

But they didn’t lose focus. They continued to keep together, helping each other out until they all reached the campsite. 

(One incident particularly touched me. I had to bring down a student who had low oxygen quickly down to Shea Goru ahead of all the other team members. He was one of the team members who wanted to cross the pass at any cost, even if it meant that his other team members would not be able to cross with him. 

While I was bringing him down, what I saw him do, again and again, was check on his team members on the walkie, asking them how they were doing and if they needed any support from his end. It showed me how strongly the team had come to care for each other.)

In the end, the team reached Shea Goru by 11 hours well ahead of the 13 hours that I thought it would take us. The students were dead tired. They went into the tents and could not come out for dinner.  But they had won and won big.  

This was not any individual’s success. It was the collective team’s win. 

In many ways, this entire trek felt like a mini ‘Chak De India.’ 34 individuals came on the trek.  When they ended the trek, they were a single team who had learnt what it meant to work collaboratively together.  

While the lessons may seem stereotyped in leadership and team building textbooks, the difference is that the students lived these lessons. They learnt every lesson the hard way, in an unfamiliar setting, where the impact of the learning was hard to ignore.

Now I go back to what I started in the beginning.  Any modern workplace needs collaborative leadership to work effectively.  The way our education system has been designed, we are not prepared for working collaboratively.  We have been groomed to compete.  

Modern workplaces need to teach their employees how to work collaboratively, almost from scratch. Which is why professional institutions like Goa Institute of Management are trying to work these into their course programs.  

Coming on programs like this helps participants learn collaborative leadership skills. It prepares them for success. 

The participants learn to put their team before their own self interest; they learn to take equal stake in the outcome of the program; they learn to have uncomfortable conversations to achieve better team functionality; and they learn that if they do this well, the collective success gives disproportionate individual success.   

I want to share my personal learning as well. When I started working at Indiahikes, I was not a collaborative leader. It has been 6 years since I have started participating in conducting these collaborative leadership programs. 

I realise now that every time I come back from such a program, I come back a different manager and leader.  My thoughts on team dynamics, team ownership and team leadership evolves. While I learn from my own experience from my work, facilitating such programs gives me 10X more learning.  The situations the participants go through mimic my real life work scenarios. Even for me the program makes the awareness and learning of collaborative skills a natural consequence of the design. 

I am happy that I get to do this program every year. The program helps me add more value to my team and my organisation.  

It makes me wish that every working professional would be a part of such programs. 

If you'd like to introduce such a program at your institution, do get in touch with me on lakshmi@indiahikes.com. It is effective especially for leadership teams at all levels. 

How A Collaborative Leadership Program Prepares You For The Modern Work World

collaborative leadersihp program experiential learning goa institute of management GIM MBA 

A long day on the trail had led into a starlit night. Surrounded by the silence of the forest, the facilitator and the children lay on their backs looking up at a dazzling sky. After a while, the facilitator asked the children, “Isn’t it so beautiful?” 

There was a pause, before a child said, “I’ve never seen anything so scary in my life before.”

The Milky Way across the night sky above the Indiahikes campsite. Picture by Pratik Mankawde

Unfamiliarity with nature often makes it seem alien. Playing in the rain, stomping through puddles, drawing on sand, letting beetles walk over your forearm, making mud pies, climbing up a tree, playing outdoors – will soon be relics from the past if children are not enabled to form a relationship that is all their own, with nature. 

Hit by multiple factors like dry academic syllabi, parental disconnect from nature, urbanization, overemphasis on textual knowledge – children today face the serious hazard of believing that nature is something outside of them or an abstract concept at best.  

Even as evidence mounts on the benefits of nature connection for children, the disconnect between children and nature seems to be rising. In the context of an urgent need to address this, we spoke to our team members, trek leaders, teachers, naturalists, trekkers and parents – asking them why connection to nature is important for children.

It helps them recognize that they are also a part of nature 

 “When we pay more attention to nature, we pay more attention to everything. We see how the dots are connected,” says Richard Louv, child advocacy expert and acclaimed author of Last Child in the Woods (2005). Richard Louv coined the term ‘Nature Deficit Disorder,’ to describe the chasm that has developed between children and nature in modern times. He described this state of disconnection from nature as something more than “a diagnostic illness” – a condition that could lead to serious mental and physical health conditions. 

“Urban children seem…to be taught to think of themselves and nature as separate from each other…” says Deepa Mohan. A birding enthusiast and avid nature lover, Deepa regularly conducts nature walks for children in south Bangalore. As a mentor of young children and grandmother of a 13 yr old and 9 yr old, her effort is to “reawaken their sense of belonging in nature, than to teach them anything specific.” 

“Children are a part of nature. Not having them feel and sense that connection is like having a family and not connecting or interacting with it! When children feel themselves to be part of the web of life, they learn to value what is around them, and protect all of it,” says Deepa.  

“When children see themselves as separate from nature, there is a dichotomy in how they view the world,” says Izzat Yaganagi, head of Experiential Learning, Indiahikes.  “It is necessary for their wellness (and the wellness of the earth) for children to integrate with nature. Our work brings children back into nature or nature back into children’s lives,” she says. 

A simple act of playing with mud or with snow, can make a child feel physically connected to nature. Picture by Vishnu Sivanandan

“This connection makes them more themselves. A child outdoors is very different from a child at home or in a classroom,” Izzat points out. “They are more joyful, curious, calm, and supportive of each other. Many have expressed that they like who they are when they are in nature. When children align with nature, they align with their true inner selves,” she says. 

Though children have become disconnected from nature for various reasons beyond their control, they reconnect with it more easily when given a chance, says Aditya Bodke, Trainer and Mentor, Indiahikes. He compares the responses of children and adults to an activity that involves hugging a tree, during the treks he leads. “Children are uninhibited even if some parents may feel awkward doing the same,” he says.  

Children demonstrate their oneness with nature in how naturally they adapt to “walking on uneven terrain, climbing trees or playing in the mud, when given an opportunity,” adds Aditya.

Whether walking on uneven terrain or muddy trails, children get a lot more accustomed to being in the outdoors while trekking, as compared to urban life. 

During a recent trek, Ravi Ranjan, Senior Slope Manager, Indiahikes observed that a student was mostly walking alone but smiling throughout. When Ravi spoke to her, she shared that this was her first ever trek. “I am feeling so free, so connected with the clouds, sky, birds, trees… I am feeling happy for no reason,” she told Ravi. She emphatically added that, “This is something I was missing in my life. I will continue to do this for the rest of my life.” 

When children connect with nature in this manner, they forge new connections within themselves too. Once established, there is no turning back from this relationship. 

Families play a great role in paving the way for such relationships to form. Neelam Karnawat speaks of her daughter Sara’s affiliation for flowers since she was less than 3 yrs old. 

While trekking to Dayara Bugyal, I saw 6-yr-old Sara from our group, looking for a “unique flower” on the trail. It was “a flower with four colours” that she had found and then misplaced. Though her “unique flower” could not be sighted over the next two days, Sara was not disheartened. She collected tiny violet, yellow and white flowers and pressed them into a book that her mother was carrying.

Back home in Pune, the pressed flowers have been framed. Sara has placed the frame in the “Dayara Corner” of their house, where stones and leaves that her mother and she had picked have been arranged. Sara’s other collection of stones from her journeys is kept in her toy box. They are taken out and spoken with during playtimes, says her mother. 

Children become a lot more observant of the environment around them and begin interacting with it when they are outdoors. Picture by Vishnu Sivanandan

Research has shown that “when children (and adults) are offered sufficient opportunities to engage with nature, their creative instincts are strengthened and enhanced.”

And yet, families may have to stretch their tolerance levels to let children love nature in ways that they want, says Pooja Pandit, Founder of The Earth School, Bangalore. She laughingly refers to “the lizard hatchery” thriving in her house, and a lemon tree populated by “mantises that need to be hand-fed live worms.”

Fear of the dark, fear of lightning, fear of heights, fear of the unknown, fear of walking on dirt tracks, fear of getting wet in the rain, fear of animals – countless fears stand between children and a deep experience of nature.  

Environmental Journalist John R. Platt reports in The Revelator that ‘biophobia’ or the fear of nature is “reducing our collective will to preserve species and habitats.” Quoting a study of over 5300 school children in Japan, he writes that “the less experience the students had with nature, the more negative their feelings.”

Platt writes of how Lead Researcher Masashi Soga from the University of Tokyo studied “nature-deficient children” to observe that “…children these days avoid even… butterflies and dragonflies.” Soga noted that a “cycle of disaffection towards nature” is passed on from a generation of nature-disconnected adults to children. 

The article quotes another study of 1,100 students from China. Though the findings are similar, this study offers hope. It reported that “direct contact with nature helped to turn biophobia into biophilia” – an innate human inclination to affiliate with nature and other life forms. This term was popularized by the work of American Biologist E. O. Wilson.  

“When you don’t know something, you fear it,” says Izzat. Children get many opportunities to lose their fears during a trek because they are facilitated to face a rich natural environment, she adds. During a recent day trek, when a snakeskin was sighted beside the trail, the children displayed much curiosity. 

They were bolder because “it was just the skin,” says Spoorthi Shetty, an Indiahikes intern, who has trained in a Snake Bite Mitigation Centre. The sighting of snakeskin led to a sharing on dealing with snake bites. 

Pooja concurs with the idea that adults play an important role in shaping children’s response to nature and its creatures. In her observation, children are intrinsically fearless and curious. In the Montessori environment of The Earth School, immersive free play in the outdoors is encouraged, caterpillars are watched, lizards befriended and playing in the rain is not disallowed. Recently a new student in the school transitioned from expressing disgust over insects to letting snails slither over her forearm, says Pooja.

Elements of nature become things to interact with and play with when children lose their fear of it. Picture by Vishnu Sivanandan

It makes them feel responsible towards nature

As climate change becomes more evident in sweeping heat waves, unseasonal storms and disappearing islands, the future of the planet is decidedly dubious. What might still save the day is if the youngest stakeholders of the earth are enabled to become stewards of nature. Outdoor play, gardening, composting, trekking, camping, animal care and other such activities could increase children’s awareness of the earth and nature’s cycles. 

Lakshmi Selvakumaran, head of the Experience Team at Indiahikes, describes the organisation’s approach to bringing children onboard as nature’s keepers. Mindful engagement with nature during a trek is the first step. “You will not care for anything that you do not love or relate to,” she says. When children are facilitated to connect with nature sensorially, they experience awe. This paves the way for the meaningful conversations initiated about nature. 

The relationship is deepened further through activities designed to make children reflect. “By the end of the trek, children experience that nature is not above or below them – they are part of it. And when we speak of taking responsibility for the earth, it makes sense to the children at a personal level because of what they have been repeatedly doing and talking about through the trek,” she says.  

Nimish Geol was 12 when he first trekked to Kuari Pass with Indiahikes. 18 yrs old now, he has been on three treks with Indiahikes so far. He connects so deeply with Indiahikes’ Green Trails initiative that he hopes to partner with Indiahikes on an exclusive Green Trails trek for children. 

“I saw enormous amounts of trash near campsites, on popular trails, and in towns…There is no proper collection system and disposal is left to nature,” says Nimish. He thinks that “encouraging youth to hike while collecting trash increases awareness about the problems we face in the Himalayas. It also imbibes a sense of responsibility for guarding the resources that we freely enjoy today.” 

Richik Pal was 13 when he trekked Deoriatal-Chandrashila with Indiahikes. It turned out to be a life-changing experience for him. Not only did the trek impact him deeply, it transformed him into a green crusader who shaped how the people of Mumbai view plastic waste. 

Richik Pal on this trek, where the lack of infrastructure for waste management made him realise the need to act on protecting the environment. 

“Given the right atmosphere, children are very receptive to learning to care for nature,” says Suhas Saya, head of DIY Team, Indiahikes. He recalls a recent Himalayan trek when school children threw their all into creating skits on sustainability. Each of the presentations showcased proactive measures, he says. 

Suhas compares how the children had arrived at the base camp – carrying packaged snacks and soda in plastic bottles – to how they left – carrying new thought processes about how their actions could impact the earth. That is how children exposed to nature could be facilitated to take up stewardship of the earth.

Ravi recalls a conversation between a father and son during a reflection session in a family trek. The son pointed out that the lifestyle choices they were making in their city lives were far from sustainable. Together, they arrived at some changes that they would need to make when they got back.

When children connect with nature while immersed in it, they get to observe nature’s workings firsthand, says Izzat. Nature follows rules: the sun rises only in the east; the seasons follow their cycles; animals eat only when hungry. By watching nature, “children could learn that rules can also be freeing and enabling towards a better life,” she says. Understanding rules in this manner can work wonders for teenagers who go through a strong phase of questioning rules, she says. Nature thus becomes a facilitator of transformation and wellness. 

An abundance of research supports the idea that children benefit physically, mentally and spiritually from being in nature. If not for those reasons, the ecological reasons to enable children to make their own relationship with nature need to be heeded. 

Why Connection to Nature is Important for Children

experiential learning children students kids nature connection

Why Connection To Nature Is Important For Children

After a wonderful success of the first Adventure Therapy trek, we have announced a second date for Adventure Therapy in the Himalayas. This is after all our learnings from our first group, which took us by surprise.

"The results of the Adventure Therapy trek turned out to be a lot more than I expected," sharesIzzat Yaganagi, head of Experiential Learning at Indiahikes, who designed and facilitated the Adventure Therapy programme. Izzat is also a Psychological Counsellor with a practice of over 13 years.

During the 4 day trek at Dayara Bugyal, while the trek did its own magic, Izzat facilitated several experiences. Talking therapy and experiential learning were key features in the adventure therapy experiences. Aditya Bodke, a Senior Trek Leader at Indiahikes, assisted her in facilitating these experiences, ensuring a safe and supportive environment. 

They saw first hand the impact that the Adventure Therapy trek had on the participants. They shared several learnings with us, many of them unexpected. 

Given all the goodness that came out of it, we opened yet another group, so that those struggling with issues can benefit from the outdoors.

This is not going to be like our regular treks. It is specially designed and facilitated by team members who are trained to conduct therapy. 

The trek is going to be led by Ms Izzat Yaganagi herself, who is a Psychological Counselor with a practice of over 13 years. She heads the Experiential Learning division at Indiahikes. 

While the trek is going to work on its own, Ms Izzat Yaganagi will be playing a big role through one-on-one sessions, group sessions. Talking therapy and experiential learning are going to be a key feature in the adventure therapy trek.

Our Adventure Therapy treks are meant for those going through some difficulty in their lives. If you’re feeling low, underconfident, or finding it hard to overcome difficulties, this trek is meant for you. If you’re overcoming the loss of someone, or unable to focus on your professional life, this trek will work wonderfully for you.

We will be taking people on an invite-basis only. You will find a link to a form at the end of this email. Please fill it in. We will talk to you and see if you really need this trek before accepting you in the group.  

I’d like to clarify this here. This trek is not meant for those who are undergoing therapy for serious psychological issues.  

(It is also not meant for those who do not find a place in our regular groups.)

Our next Adventure Therapy Trek will be held between Sept 27th - October 2nd.

This trek is going to be held at the beautiful Dayara Bugyal. The program will be facilitated again by Ms Izzat Yaganagi, head of our experiential learning program. The base camp, the campsites, the meadows, mountain views, they all lend themselves to a great setting for therapy.

The adventure therapy trek fee is Rs: 10,950 + 5% GST (base camp to base camp).

You’ll find more details about the Dayara Bugyal trek on this page.

If you’d like to be a part of our Adventure Therapy trek, fill up the below form and we'll get back to you. 

We have announced a second date for the Adventure Therapy Trek in September 2022 to Dayara Bugyal. Take a look.

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