Our Board

Rachna Dushyant Singh

founder & secretary

Rachna Dushyant Singh belongs to the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. She is widely traveled, with over 20 years of experience in community work, corporate communications and teaching. She has an insight into India and its amazing resources as she moved constantly as a child with her father all over India. A blend of different cultures and identities helped her in evolving as a more aware human being and in developing certain key skills. Rachna completed her M.Phil degree in Linguistics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She traveled to Hong Kong, to teach at the Baptist College, University of Hong Kong. She writes on cultural and womens issues for travel magazines. She has given lectures on Communication Skills at the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

Shail Jakhmola

president

Shail Jakhmola lives in Vasant Vihar. Grand daughter of the late Rai Bahadur Rama Dutt Raturi, she has been a close observer of the changes that have overrun the hill state of Uttarakhand. She is on the board of several grassroots organisations dealing with women’s issues. An alumni of the only women’s college of Dehradun, she is the President of the Alumni Association of her college. She writes extensively. Her life as the wife of a senior army officer taught her different design concepts as she traveled through rural and urban India. She has two children and three grandchildren. She is widely traveled both in India and abroad.

Reet Hazarika

vice-president

Reet Hazarika is an Economics graduate from Calcutta University. He began his career in 1977 leading cultural and natural history tours. Subsequently, he became the Director, Tour Operations with Abercrombie & Kent, India. After working for over a decade, he took up a similar position with International Ventures & Travel (IVAT), a well regarded Indian destination management company. In September 2008, he established Quo Vadis Travel to focus on customized special-interest travel.

Sohan Singh Panwar

treasurer

Sohan Singh is the Village Headman of the Gram Sabha Bistgaon. He was elected Village Headman of our village in 2003. He is an extremely proactive person who has started many innovative programmes in the village like raising funds for toilets in each house, clean drinking water for every home, electricity, fruit tree plantation, etc. Both he and his wife have been assisting us from the inception of the programme. He won the President's award in 2010 for his work in building lavatories through the villages.

Alekh Vardhan

Alekh Vardhan is an alumnus of the Oakgrove School, Mussourie. He has a long and abiding interest in the environment. Having studied in Uttarakhand, he is keen to do something to give back to the community. He heads companies dealing in pharmaceuticals, energy, and tourism.

Manoviraj Singh

Manoviraj Singh graduated from Delhi University with History Honours in 2014. He has been engaged in community work with ANKURI since 2007. After a brief stint at Macleod Russel Tea Estates, he is now engaged in handling the logistics for ANKURI. He facilitates the rural work and is an expert at interface with the local administration.