Anjali Ganapathy is a chef and culinary researcher and advocate dedicated to preserving the traditional cuisine of Coorg as an essential expression of the region’s ecological and cultural identity.

What began as a mission to represent the richness of this little known cuisine in a vast culinary landscape, is now a platform which uses food as a medium through the lens of its unique culture - reverent of nature and the interconnectedness. While drawing attention to the ingredients, seasonality, and ecological contexts of Coorg’s cuisine. Her work emphasizes how preserving food traditions is inseparable from protecting the ecosystems that support them. She draws on generational knowledge, traditional techniques, and field research to present meals that reflect the shifting realities of Coorg’s environment.

As member of the PARABERE Forum, a global network of women leaders in food and sustainability, Anjali brings both local insight and global perspective to her advocacy. Her public work frequently addresses the urgent need to restore ecological balance in Coorg, particularly in the face of tourism-driven development, habitat loss, and changing land use.

With a background in brand marketing and over a decade of experience in the food and beverage industry, Anjali transitioned into culinary work to document and revive the culinary heritage of Coorg.

Her conservation perspective is deeply informed by personal experience. Since 2017, her father has adopted regenerative agriculture practices on their family coffee estate, leading to increased biodiversity—from the return of native bird species to the resurgence of wild mushrooms. This transformation has reinforced Anjali’s belief that ecological restoration and culinary heritage are inseparably linked.

Is the Co-founder of Project Serotonin, a pioneering precision health platform for peak health and longevity, based in Silicon Valley and India. With over two decades of experience designing solutions for companies globally, she leads efforts to ensure that platforms are intuitive, compliant, and globally scalable. Her expertise has been honed through her work in developing systems that improve process efficiencies and expand user engagement.

In addition to her tech background, she’s a self-taught nutritionist and a passionate champion of regenerative agriculture, environmental preservation, small family farms, and soil health. A dual focus on innovation and sustainability drives her commitment to creating solutions that empower people to lead thriving, sustainable lives that are both good for the planet and good for them.

She believes in the profound connection between human health and the health of our planet, a belief firmly rooted in the ancestral and indigenous wisdom of the land. Her deep connection to Coorg, where she’s from, seeded in her a reverent curiosity for nature and the non-human kin. A daily practice that continues to fuel her participation in the world.

Watching Coorg change over the years, while listening to oral anecdotes from her father and elders who longed for the once abundant wild fruits or the plentiful bird & wildlife, only strengthened her resolve and commitment to creating and nurturing a collective - of interdisciplinary folk who are working towards reimagining a thriving, regenerative future for Coorg.

Neethi Mahesh is a freshwater ecologist, conservationist, and environmental educator with a lifelong passion for rivers and riparian ecosystems. Growing up immersed in the rainforests of southern India, Neethi’s fascination with aquatic life began early—with school field projects that revealed the hidden worlds beneath freshwater surfaces. That curiosity evolved into a career devoted to the protection of riverine habitats, especially the fragile riparian zones of the Cauvery River in Kodagu, Karnataka.

A recipient of The Habitats Trust’s Conservation Hero Grant (2019), Neethi works at the intersection of science, community empowerment, and ecological restoration. Her research has focused on species like the mahseer, a migratory fish that serves as a vital indicator of river health and a keystone in the food web supporting otters, birds, and more. Her work has highlighted how freshwater species are deeply entwined with seasonal cycles and terrestrial ecosystems—showcasing rare interspecies interactions, like mahseer feeding frenzies triggered by fruit dropped by Malabar Giant Squirrels.

As a core member of the Coorg Conservation Collective, Neethi offers invaluable expertise, depth of longitudinal research and guidance that helps shape grass roots initiatives working to restore native vegetation, prevent riverbank erosion, and raise awareness about the threats riparian habitats face.

She also founded the Cauvery River Monitoring Network, a hands-on citizen science initiative that brings local students and communities directly into the conservation process. By encouraging experiential learning and observation, she helps people form meaningful relationships with the rivers that sustain them.

For Neethi, conservation is not just about science—it’s about connection, community, and resilience. Her work is fueled by the belief that protecting rivers means protecting communities, livelihoods, and cultural memory. And through patience, creativity, and collaboration, she’s building a model for river conservation that is local, inclusive, and deeply hopeful.

Abhilash Mandappa is an environmental and travel photographer, filmmaker, writer, and creative director—guided always by the quiet conviction of a dreamer. Through image and story, he has committed himself to bringing attention to landscapes that are too often ignored, none more intimately than the fragile wetlands of Kodagu.

As the founder of Wetlands of Kodagu, Abhilash leads a vital initiative dedicated to the protection of Coorg’s vanishing paddy wetlands—ecosystems that are not only lifelines for biodiversity but critical components of regional water security. His work sheds light on how these landscapes—nestled in watershed zones—sustain not just local agrarian communities but the rivers and aquifers that flow far beyond Kodagu’s borders.

A deep believer in the power of art to shift perception, he also founded the Chai Kadai Collective, a creative platform that documents species, habitats, and indigenous knowledge through photography, writing, and grassroots media. His lens captures not just wildlife, but the nuanced intimacy between people and place, between culture and ecology.

As a core member of the Coorg Conservation Collective, Abhilash is at the forefront of grassroots efforts to safeguard Kodagu’s ecological heritage. His advocacy is rooted in the understanding that wetlands are living systems—resilient buffers against climate extremes, silent custodians of groundwater, and guardians of cultural continuity. They offer sustenance, shelter, and the possibility of climate resilience in an uncertain future.

Blending visual storytelling with community engagement, Abhilash’s work seeks to educate, inspire, and empower. Through workshops, collaborative films, and evocative field narratives, he invites farmers, students, and policymakers alike to see these wetlands not as leftover lands, but as sacred commons—repositories of ancestral wisdom and ecological intelligence.

Driven by a sense of quiet urgency and a vision rooted in care, Abhilash Mandappa is helping to reimagine conservation as a shared inheritance—one that binds land and life, present and future, in an ethic of stewardship.

Payal Shah runs Kō Fermentary - a flavour lab, think tank, and creative fermentation studio based in Bengaluru. She’s not a chef, a food scientist, or a microbiologist by degree (her academic roots are in organizational psychology). Still, she’s spent the last 20 years exploring the wild, unpredictable world of microbes and flavour. What began as a ginger beer obsession in her twenties has since spiraled (gloriously) into a lifelong love affair with fermentation. Raised in a food-obsessed Gujarati-Kolkata-Bangalore household, Payal grew up on a mashup of rotli-shaak, bisi bele bath, and her mum’s legendary puran poli. Her grandmother’s zero-waste kitchen and army of sunning pickles left an early imprint - she was the one tasked with hauling jars off the terrace each afternoon (and sneaking a taste or two along the way). Today, she still makes a killer rasam miso when she’s under the weather and prefers to let microbes do most of the heavy lifting in her kitchen. Kō, for Payal is a space she belongs to. It’s her way of making fermentation accessible, joyful, and a little rebellious, especially for those who’ve been taught that science must be serious or that tradition should sit still. Through Kō, she shares “non-recipes,” zines, playbooks, and her much-loved weekly AMAs on Instagram (now five years strong), answering questions from curious fermenters across the globe.

In her work with the Collective, Payal explores the intersections of fermentation, cultural memory, and biodiversity—drawing on the microbial arts not only for gut health but as tools for regeneration, storytelling, and sustainability. Her approach celebrates fermentation as both a method and a metaphor: a way to preserve what’s essential while allowing it to evolve into something new.

Nehal Shah is the co-founder of Kō, a flavour, food, and experience design think tank and studio that reimagines how we connect through sensory encounters. With over 15 years of global expertise in experience design and innovation, Nehal excels in crafting transformative experiences that resonate deeply, blending art, food, and human connection into unforgettable moments. Her work spans industries and continents, often rooted in the power of culture to tell stories and build bridges.

At Kō, Nehal pioneers experience design that transcends traditional boundaries, creating multi-sensory journeys where flavour, ambiance, and emotion intertwine. From intimate culinary events to expansive, interactive environments, her projects communicate profound narratives that invite audiences to feel, reflect, and engage. A highly analytical mind and relentless pattern finder, she often holds a 3D ecosystem vividly in her head, where she maps intricate layers of interaction-envisioning how every element, from scent to spatial flow, interlocks to create a seamless, meaningful whole.

Driven by a passion for good art and human-centered experiences, Nehal builds collaborative ecosystems that unite diverse perspectives to birth the extraordinary. For her, experiences are all about crafting memories that linger, shared connections that inspire, and expressions that challenge the ordinary.

Mr. A.M. Ganapathy is a second-generation coffee planter in the Kodagu District of Karnataka. A retired military officer, he returned to plantation life on his family estate, which has since become one of the most biodiverse micro-regions, while also cultivating Robusta and Arabica coffee in a 60:40 ratio.

His deeply held philosophy on treating the land as a living ecosystem, prioritizing soil restoration and ecological harmony, led him to transition towards regenerative agriculture in 2017 — an approach to farming that focuses on rebuilding soil health through non-chemical methods such as cover cropping, no-till cultivation, and composting. His deep commitment to soil regeneration has not only improved water retention and crop resilience but also triggered a remarkable ecological revival on the estate.

Since adopting these practices, the land has become a thriving habitat for biodiversity. The return of wild mushrooms, the resurgence of native vegetation, and the presence of over 100 species of birds—including insectivores and key pollinators—reflect the healing of the ecosystem. Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators now play a crucial role in enhancing coffee flowering, improving yield quality, and ensuring the long-term productivity of the plantation. Natural pest control from increased bird and insect populations has further reduced reliance on chemical interventions.

Mr. Ganapathy’s passionate work in land restoration demonstrates how regenerative agriculture can significantly improve the nutrient density of soil and crops—countering the depletion caused by years of synthetic fertilizer use, which is known to have reduced the nutritional value of crops by over 60% globally—while also helping restore ecological balance.

Underscoring the potential of this approach to heal degraded land, restore biodiversity, and secure both livelihoods and landscapes.

He’s a passionate advocate who believes that wider adoption of regenerative practices can play a critical role in contributing to the environmental resilience of the Kodagu region and in safeguarding its ecological integrity for future generations.

Siddharth has over 20 years of experience in asset management and equity investments, having begun his career at Credit Suisse, Toronto.

He currently advices institutional clients and family offices in Europe and India on investing in public and private markets with a focus on the Asia Pacific region.

He is passionate about the environment and preservation of bio-diverse areas and ecosystems.

Rajesh Reddy is a serial entrepreneur, innovator, and visionary known for building category-defining, scalable platforms that bridge technology, design, and human impact.

Rajesh’s pioneering work began with the founding of Unimobile and July Systems, where he helped shape the mobile internet landscape in its earliest days. His experience in architecting large-scale digital systems—across urban and emerging markets—reflects a rare ability to design technology that is both globally impactful and locally adaptive.

As an Advisor to the Coorg Conservation Collective, he contributes to a shared vision of preservation across eco-sensitive regions like Coorg, where platforms—when designed with ecological intent—can support grassroots conservation, climate adaptation, and cultural preservation.

Rajesh also serves as a Board Member of The Nilgiris Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the cultural and ecological heritage of the Nilgiri Biosphere. He is particularly passionate about integrating traditional knowledge with contemporary tools to build platforms that support long-term conservation, climate resilience, and cross-regional ecological cooperation.

A passionate advocate for the protection of the broader Western Ghats ecosystem—one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots—Rajesh focuses on bridging grassroots ecological stewardship with global innovation, ensuring that conservation efforts are both grounded and far-reaching.

He is also a founding investor in high-impact ventures like Project Serotonin, a preventive health and longevity platform with a vision to transform human health both in India and globally.

Rajesh’s leadership across sectors reflects a rare blend of technological foresight and a lifelong commitment to solving complex local and global challenges—through innovation that is not just smart, but sustainable—for communities, landscapes, and systems alike.