It’s been more than half a century since many scientists, economists, and experts warned us about rising temperatures and climate change. A rise in droughts, heatwaves, irregular weather patterns, landslides, and much more, seem to be a direct consequence of our collective disregard for those warnings. Yet, instead of taking corrective action, we continue to rely on a way of life that is isolated, extractive and violent.

Our highly consumeristic lifestyles take us away from the interconnected web of relationships that supports our existence. We remain unaware of where our resources come from, who extracts them, the conditions they live in, and the true cost of our convenience.This lack of connection and awareness is mirrored in how our governments and corporations approach the pressing crises of our time. They treat these challenges—climate change, inequality, exploitation, and resource depletion—as isolated problems and attempt to address them in silos, offering solutions that often act as mere band-aids.

It’s evident that addressing only the symptoms is insufficient. What’s urgently needed is a more fundamental inquiry into the systems and mindsets that give rise to these interconnected crises.

Earth-Shastra is a 9-day immersive journey in the lap of nature, that will bring together 30 young changemakers from across India - to do precisely that. To slow down with a community of like-hearted people and make sense of the climate emergency and converging crises of our times. It's a leadership experience to orient one’s life path as a response towards greater harmony with oneself, others and nature. The focus is to develop the capacity to understand the big picture and the humility to start with small actions, realizing that every action matters. It inadvertently involves focus on personal transformation and nurturing deep community over the 9-days and beyond. The immersive journey will involve nature connects, reflective circles, hands-on activities, field immersion, content sessions and mentoring. After eight remarkable editions in Palampur, Palghar, Udaipur, Uttarakhand, Auroville and online, we are launching the 9th edition that shall happen in Kumaon Region of Uttarakhand from 12th - 20th April, 2025.

Details

Dates

• 9-day immersion program
• Begins at 11 a.m. on 12th April 2025 in Dineshpur, Udham Singh Nagar District of Uttrakhad and ends at 7 p.m. in Sattal, Uttarakhand on 20th April 2025.

Location & Weather

• The program includes travel across three locations - Dineshpur, Sattal and a forest nearby - over the course of nine days in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.
• Temperatures shall vary predictably between 10°C to 33°C.

Travel & Accommodation

• Food, stay and all other mandatory requirements during the program will be taken care of.
• Stay will be basic with shared accomodation and baths.
• Participants will have to reach the venue by Day 0 night or early morning on Day 1 on their own.
• Accomodation available from Day 0 night to Day 10 morning.

Financial Contribution

Putting together all the different parts of this whole program incurs significant financial cost, which includes costs of **Facilitation, Program Design, Food, Accommodation, Transport, Material & Logistics, Mentoring etc**.

The actual total cost for hosting 30 participants for 9 days is 42,000 INR per participant. Due to generous contributions of our donors and previous participants, we are able to subsidize the cost to Rs. 30,000 per participant. We hope that you are able to cover the full cost of the program. However, we understand that for some participants, this amount might be difficult, so we have a few options of partial financial assistance available to those who truly need it. The details of the same are available in the application form. While we have limted capacity to support all financial assiatance requests, we will try our best. So do not hesitate to apply if you align with the program.

Application Process

We work with the principle of mutual selection to invite participants to our programs. The hope is for the program and community to be in the service of the participants' journey and viceversa. The Application process is a three step process:

• Step 1: Filling the application form
• Step 2: A short call (around 10-15 min)
• Step 3: A longer conversation to understand each other better (around 30-40 mins)
• Note: We will confirm your selection on a rolling basis, so apply early!

To cultivate the collective field of the team, we have been hosting annual Earth-Shastra Learning Process, know more about it here.