Wander to Explore

Wilderness India

Wilderness India is a Surat based organization which conducts nature education camps, adventure activities, mountaineering camps, jungle safaris, bird watching trips, wildlife photography trips, river rafting and paragliding camps for schools, universities, unprivileged children, senior citizens and corporate institutes. Wilderness India is run by nature enthusiasts and highly trained instructors from reputed mountaineering institutes in India. We organize a wide range of camps starting from very basic rough and tough camps deep into the jungle which gives you a feeling of being close to nature to highly lavish, luxurious and full-facility camps in most exotic locations throughout India considering the expectations from our participants. At Wilderness India, we believe that participant satisfaction and their emotional and physical safety is of prime importance and hence all our camps ensure to take the best possible care of participants and give them the best adventure experience.

Our Team

Viral Prajapati
Founder - Instructor
Being a farmer’s son, I was lucky to be always close to mother nature in my childhood. My hobbies were different from others. Like a village kid, I used to climb trees, observe birds-insects-reptiles in my dad’s farm, roam around in the forests, and explore unknown places. Since my childhood, I used to accept physical and mental challenges and this led me to do various mountaineering courses and climbing expeditions in my later years. I joined Nature Club Surat- an ngo which spreads environment awareness and conducts adventure camps in my 10th standard.

”Read_More”

I started loving those activities and hence I started working for it in 2001. I did a Basic rock climbing course from SwamiVivekananda Mountaineering institute in mount Abu and thereafter I did a Basic and Advanced Mountaineering courses Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi (which is one of the best mountaineering institute globally). I did this so that I can be an official mountaineering instructor and thereafter I started leading several adventure camps. I joined NCC as I wanted to follow a diciplined lifestyle and I am “C” certificate holder of NCC. I personally did a Gujarat cycling expedition to spread nature awareness and was one of the members of Mt. Gangotri expedition where I understood the importance of exposing oneself to such adventures and the impact it has on one’s personal life. I started working for animal conservation, rescue and breeding projects and started engaging people in such activities. So far, I have taken thousands of students to adventures and it fills ultimate pleasure, joy and satisfaction to see the youth of the nation to enjoy nature. I along with my co-founder Nisarg did Leadership in Biodiversity conservation course from BNHS which helped me to take my efforts of nature conservation to a next level. My mission is to bring people and specially kids close to nature, make them understand the importance of a green world and make them appreciate the beautiful world that the creator has given to us. Wilderness-India is set up to make a difference and with my knowledge and limited experience I have in this field, we see a different world full of energetic adventure loving kids in few years time.

”Less”

Daxesh Patel
Founder - Instructor
I was always inspired by nature and its beauty. I started going into places untouched by industrialization and sat there for hours thinking about how can I contribute to keep this beautiful place as it is. I used to capture what I saw in nature in my paintings as I felt that though nature is getting destroyed, my paintings wont! It was one of the way to keep the memories of such beautiful places alive. I then took my passion of conserving nature in papers to a next level by conserving it on electronic devices and became a graphics designer and started reflecting nature through my eyes in my work.

”Read_More”

Nature, since then has always been my passion. I gradually started thinking about conservation beyond papers and electronic devices. I started thinking about how can I actually contribute for a better future. I felt that adventure is one part of nature which can be easily related in human activities. You always feel adventurous when you are in nature. It challenges the human body, mind and soul. Accepting these challenges brings out the best in an individual and gives re-birth to the definition of life and hence I started conducting and leading nature and adventure camps with a local NGO called Nature Club Surat. After many years of experience came the strength of setting up Wilderness-India. My dream is to inspire people and engage them in nature and adventure sports. My dream is for all the parents to encourage their children to dream BIG.!

”Less”

Nisarg Patel
Founder - Instructor
As a kid, I used to spend my spare time going in the jungles, climbing up mountains and rescuing injured birds and animals unlike majority of my friends who ended up playing video games and watching TV series. My vacations would be on top of mountains enjoying the powerful winds, breath taking views of the green valleys, taking pictures of the natural beauty and creating memories for life and my free time was utilized for animal welfare. At first I did all this just because I got immense pleasure in such activities but gradually I understood the importance of exposing oneself

”Read_More”

to such environment.I thought that 50 years later, people of my age will perhaps not be able to enjoy the feeling what I am enjoying because of rapid industrialization and globalization. I hence thought to pursue my career in a field which can contribute to a green future. I figured out that power and electricity are the major issues of India which should be taken care of and hence after my Bachelors in electrical engineering, I pursued my Masters in renewable energy and specialized in solar energy. Today I am happy that I can give give electricity to people directly from the sun and without encroaching the beautiful world that God has given us. The idea of setting up Wilderness-India instantly attracted me as I knew how much satisfaction such activities gives, how much impact it has on self-development and how important these type of activities are besides the academic knowledge. I wanted students from schools, universities and all people in general to have an opportunity to participate in such activities and develop into powerful human beings having a sense of responsibility towards the mother earth and thus was Wilderness-India established.

”Less”

How are we different?

Why Wilderness India

Adventure camps is recently gaining popularity and has become an entertainment activity for people and students who want to get out of their daily hectic lifestyle and relax for a couple of days.

Wilderness India believes that that there is much more hidden potential in such activities besides relaxing. We do not just do adventure camps where in students and participants can register, have a day off and enjoy climbing mountains or river-rafting (there are plenty of institutes for such activities). We believe to give our participants a personality development and self-confidence boosting experience. Besides such adventure activities, our experienced leaders teach our participants the importance of learning survival skills, being independent and living in harmony with mother earth. In our camps we teach and share our knowledge of the flora and fauna, climatic, geographic and historic importance and the ecosystem balance associated with the area. Our philosophy is to give an adventure experience to our participants, bring them close to nature and make sure that this motivation lasts in their life forever. Bringing our students and participants close to nature along with adventure camping makes us distinguished in the sphere of adventure camping. Our instructors have been working for nature conservation since more than 20 years and we have a strong belief of giving our students the knowledge of animals, birds, reptiles and their importance in the ecosystem balance. Our instructors have been working for animal welfare and nature conservation projects for almost their entire life and thus we give a unique learning experience to our students by which they can relate themselves with nature and learn the importance of going green. Wilderness-India is thus perhaps the only institute which believes in empowerment of youth and working for a better and greener tomorrow along with camping.

How Wilderness India will prepare you for School, University, Work and Life?

As we mentioned Wilderness India is much more than just summer camps and holidays, we emphasize a lot on the importance of personal growth which helps to gain skills which are useful for students and participants to develop great decision making skills, get into great universities, succeed in their careers, and feel more satisfied with life in general.

Developing Optimism, Independence and Acceptance.

As our camps includes everything from packing a ruck-sack, to making a journey with new people and conquering your fear and returning back with a sense of satisfaction, it builds up independence and optimism in our participants. Facing outdoor challenges in a new and sometimes even uncomfortable environment can boost up strength and develop acceptance in our participants which can be useful in facing challenges and accepting failure in later stages of life. These skills are must for a successful life.

Boosting Self-Confidence

We have observed that our students and participants develop self-confidence via our camps. Our rough and tough camps puts our students in a physically and mentally challenging environment. Once they accomplish their goal, weather it be reaching the summit of a mountain, pitching a tent in a windy atmosphere, cooking their own food or sleeping in a sleeping bag, they achieve a feeling of “YES- We can do it!”. Success beyond expectations gives a craving for accepting and trying out new challenges, leading to more satisfaction and success. This scales up to every stage in life weather it be education, job, or social life.

Developing Employability life skills

In the competitive world of 21st century, communication, adaptability, critical thinking, leadership, creativity are extremely important skills one must posses in order to be successful. Most of our camps are conducted in an electronic-free environment where one is left with no other option but to communicate with fellow participants and our camp activities are designed to specifically build these skills. Constructive debates, rock climbing, river rafting, learning about the wildlife and sharing experiences are major activities throughout our camp which improve these skills in our students and participants.

Widening the view

Wilderness India chooses beautiful locations and exciting activities which are specially designed by our professional adventure, hiking and mountaineering instructors. Our students and participants get the privilege to broaden their horizons and learn to appreciate their lives. It can start from anything such as understanding different people on the camp, interacting with tribals, learning various cultures, finding a new favorite outdoor activity or everything. We want our students and participants to leave us with having a wider meaning towards life where they have healthy habits and helping mid-set.

Social Achievement

We have seen a remarkable difference in our students in their social skills through our camps. Though young students and participants are now a days having a very strong social skills incorporated in them by their parents and schools, sometimes they just need to learn it from “someone else”. We can be that “someone else” and our students and participants leave us with a stronger and a more focused interest towards learning, growth and personal relationship.

Our Partners