Vegan activity vacation in Kerala

Planet

On all of our vegan Multi-Activity vacations, we take great care in making efforts to preserve the environment and encourage guests to follow our lead. Our firm belief is that to appreciate the environment around you, you will need to relive it. This is such a tour.

We have taken special care to take our guests through a number of National parks and wildlife sanctuaries to observe the indigenous flora & fauna in this bio-diversity hot spot all within a week’s nature journey.

Wildlife Watching: Our wildlife watching is on foot unobtrusively causing minimum impact on the peaceful environs of the forest. We have trained our guides to identify endemic birds, wildlife and plants along this fragile eco system has gone a long way in encouraging our guests to be more environmentally conscious.

Single Use Plastics policy: We have been actively promoting the policy of not using single use plastic bottles. To this end we have stopped the use of plastic water bottles but carry large cans of safe drinking water and the guests are provided steel bottles by us to refill during the journey. We also actively discourage single use plastic bags & instead use cloth bags to carry food and refreshments in the field.

Hotels: By staying at environmentally low impact accommodation like the Hornbill Camp & Ecotones eco lodge on this tour, we hope to bring in awareness about Responsible Tourism & sustainable travel among the general public. The water is heated using solar heaters and the kitchen refuse is recycled for use in the spice plantations nearby.

People

We work with hotels & resorts who understands the value of responsible, vegan-friendly travel wherever possible. During this journey, we also provide opportunities for our guests to interact with the local tribal communities and observe their ecologically and environmentally balanced life with minimum impact on the environment.

The focus of this tour is the co-mingling with the local communities and indigenous communities that dwell in the less travelled tracts of rural Kerala, often close to forest areas. Some of these members are part of the eco development committees, earning a livelihood from the positive fall out of tourism related activities like forest hiking, bird watching and observing wildlife in these protected areas. Our guides who are from local communities understand these values and always recommend activities that do not go counter to these cherished values of environmental protection to these fragile areas.

The treks are always led by tribal trackers and members from the local community, who have over the years come to depended almost exclusively from income from tourism related activities due to slowing down of their farm-related traditional incomes. The treks in these wilderness areas leave only a miniscule carbon footprint and present itself as an alternative form of tourism as opposed to the mass tourism normally seen in such hill stations.

So is the case with kayaking at the Hornbill camp which once again utilizes the services of the local youth who are expert oarsmen helping them make an alternate livelihood since their traditional livelihood from fishing has seen a serious decline in recent past.

We always employ local drivers during all our tours. Our supplies like vegetables and poultry are always sourced from villagers residing near the camp & we promote local businesses by using local jeeps and locally owned wooden canoes for moving on the river, whenever possible.