The couple spent 30 years restoring the reserve, replanting the rainforest
Pamela Gale Malhotra and her husband Anil Malhotra are the owners of the only private nature reserve in India, Sai Sanctuary, which was opened in 1991. Today, the 300-acre nature reserve is home to more than two hundred endangered plant and animal species, including the Indian elephant and the Bengal tiger.
"When we bought this land, it was abandoned," Pamela said. - Abandoned rice fields, coffee plantations and cardamom fields. Places are mostly deforested. And it took us decades and a lot of effort to restore nature."
In the part of India where the reserve is located, the level of forest cover has decreased from 86% to 16% since the 1970s.
According to Pamela, this happens not only among them, but also throughout the south of India.
The Malhotra couple reconnect nature and animals, restoring forests where their inhabitants can return.
"We feel a great sense of joy when we walk around the reserve. I've never been so happy before."
"I remember a time when there were no sounds in this place except the dry rustle of footsteps."
"Now it is alive and bathed in sounds."