The lifeline of our initiatives has been the support we have received. Our supporters, both organisational and individuals, have been instrumental and critical to the growth and progress of our initiatives. Many Thanks!

Organisations: The begging bowl is a common feature of the necessary repertoire of development organisations. Fundraising is one of the major bottlenecks for many organisations as on the one hand it deprives you of valuable time on the field and on the other it raises the question of your own sustainability and subsequently that of your initiatives. However, without the support of development agencies and funding organisations many development initiatives would never have even got out of the conceptual stages itself. We are grateful to the following organisations for the support and faith they have shown in us:

• Gtz – German Development Co-operation
• Sir Ratan Tata Trust
• UNESCO
• Snow Leopard Conservancy
• Disney Foundation
• Govt of Himachal Pradesh
• European Union
• GERES
• Sir Dorabji Tata Trust
• The Ford Foundation
• Winrock International
• Department of Science and Technology
• WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature

Individuals: Inspiration is the key to the success of any initiative. Working in Spiti with its harsh geo-climatic situation and the isolated local community had its moments of glory and dejection. The support of a number of individuals has been critical in taking us through our successes and failures alike. They have not only assisted us with their valuable guidance at important junctions of the work but have also contributed tremendously to the growth of our various initiatives.

Ashok Thakur (IAS) - Principal Secretary, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh – without you we wouldn’t have ever started working in Himachal – thank you.

Subhash Negi (IAS) - Principal Secretary, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh – for your trust and confidence in us

Mr. Selvam (IAS) - Govt of Himachal Pradesh – your perseverance and passion for seabuckthorn was a great motivator

P.L Negi (HAS) - Govt of Himachal Pradesh – for his active involvement at the grassroots, passion, honesty and support

Dr. Virendra Singh - Seabuckthorn Scientist, HPKV, Palampur – the father behind the seabuckthorn endeavour in India.

Rinchen Wangchuk, Director, Snow Leopard Conservancy, Ladakh – for all your inputs, ideas and expertise

Rodney Jackson -Director, Snow Leopard Conservancy, USA.

Kishore Thukral - is a man of varied facets. A financial broker by profession, Kishore is an avid mountaineer, traveller, writer and photographer. His passion for heritage conservation inspired him to take on the mammoth task of the restoration of The Dhankhar Monastery.

Joy Siddhanta - Web designer – for bearing with our fussy ways!!

Gopika Khanna - older & richer sisters are a God send. Need we say more?

Seema Chauhan - from laptops to altimeters to many more things and for being there when there was very little.

Sridhar - brother-in-laws also get roped in even if they like it or not!

Ajay Uthaman – for your great ideas and insights.

Aquaterra Team – for their beautiful pictures and support

Nandita Jain - Consultant Eco-tourism – for making that trip to Spiti that got us working on Eco-tourism

Nitin Das - Film maker, www.filmkaar.com – for your philosophy, insights and efforts of making actors out of the spitians

Aarthi Sridhar - Development Professional – for your short but always fruitful holidays to Spiti

Sumit Aggarwal – for the numerous free legal inputs – we’ll hope to get more!!

Ashish Shashni – for the man that solves all problems

Jiten Suchede – for the lovely posters and the ecosphere logo

Dikit – for giving us space for our 1st seabuckthorn unit and her healthy criticism!!

Anil Kuriyal – for your valuable guiding inputs to the local boys and the scepticism towards NGO’s

Dhananjay Ahluwalia – for the bikes you promised??????

Hirsh & Anjali – our first homestay guests – thank you for being the first.

Janet & Alec Taylor – the first travellers with Ecosphere – thanks for your valuable inputs

Noah Sharon – our first volunteer – thanks for making us realise the importance of volunteers

Sarah Hine - Fellow, America India Foundation - for all her support

Sachin Gurjale, Theatre Artist – for all the great data collected

Vasuda Arora, Development professional – for promoting our products with such great enthusiasm

Bhutit - a strong headed women whose passion for equity and earth inspired her to work with Muse and Nono.

Namgyal Dolma – the Rangrik nomo (girl from Rangrik village, famous for its pretty girls!!) thanks for keeping the office up and running efficiently.

Antoine – his easy going attitude brought new life to our work

Aravind – your love and passion for the mountains and Spiti

Tanpa – his support then and now.

Navkirat – for Ecosphere on our window panes!!

Marc Lewis – for being the first volunteer grass cutter in the Spiti valley and also the map you made.

Ethan – Photographer volunteer. Did some serious first aid trainings as well.

Erica Fuss – Diligent volunteer – just the kind we need more of . Was at it at all times. Language dictionary, fossil posters, film scripts. Wow! Talk about multi-tasking.

Lobsang – besides the peas and potatoes from his beautiful village of Sanglung he is the perpetual volunteer for Ecosphere for anything and everything.

Vipul Sood – our CA in Shimla. Thanks for your patience with us and answering all our strange and sometimes incomprehensible questions.

If we’ve forgotten any names it is only because - as you all know our memories have faded way before our time living in the Spiti climes and not because we don’t appreciate your contribution. Please overlook the follies of ageing!!