The Conservationist
Conservation is not something I observe. It is how I live.
My great-grandfather walked into the forests of southern Karnataka four generations ago and never really left them. The forests he disappeared into were not a backdrop to that life — they were its teacher. Vanya Siri was founded on the conviction that this relationship can be carried forward: that the same forests can be studied, protected and drawn upon without being diminished.
The Centre for Wildlife Conservation & Research (CWCR) is the Trust's living expression of that conviction — based in the heart of Devarayanadurga State Forest, preserving biodiversity, advancing research, and fostering harmony between humans and wildlife.
The Sanctuary
Devarayanadurga is not a scenic backdrop; it is a working landscape of sacred groves, medicinal plants, boulders and wildlife corridors. The Sacred Vanas within it are divine sanctuaries where nature and spirituality unite — cradled by ancient trees and infused with tranquil energy.
Our work documents the species that live here: over five hundred plant species, more than two hundred bird species, and forty-five mammal species calling this forest home. Every species documented is a species with a name, a place and a future we can defend.
Research & Documentation
The CWCR runs comprehensive surveys and documentation projects approved by the Karnataka Forest Department, uncovering the rich biodiversity of this ecologically significant forest. Flora surveys document plant species and medicinal herbs; fauna tracking monitors wildlife patterns and habitats; ecosystem analysis studies the interconnections of forest life.
This documentation has produced more than one hundred and twenty research papers and continues to inform conservation decisions at the landscape level.
Coexistence, Not Conquest
The most honest measure of conservation is not in papers but in the everyday: a farmer who has not lost a calf this year, a leopard that still has a corridor to move through, a village that knows what to do when the wild comes calling.
Through films, community outreach and the Trust's work, we pursue a single goal — leaving behind a thriving ecosystem enriched by Vedic intelligence, borrowed from our children at no cost, and returned to them intact.
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We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
Raghunandan S.