Projects ANF India (Founded in 2001) 2001 - 2008

The base of ANF India was decided in the year 2001in the Holland when ANF executives could come into contact with Vivek. He was called there to deliver lecture on tiger protection in India and to attend interviews. Vivek    was then acting as a teacher, information officer and the Nature guide at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. With the aid of Vivek   ANF India was officially founded and registered at Agra as place of functioning.
In the following years the ANF India team organized various drawing competitions on different schools in Bandhavgrh to track down talent, and to give the children an idea what the tiger means for their environment. ANF India did this with a modest financial contribution from ANF’s head quarters in Holland.

Moreover excursions with a nature educational aspect were organized in the park against a reduced price. ANF was able to finance these expenses out of the contribution of the Tiger exhibitions in Germany and gifts from different friends of ANF.
Daily the children see the tourists enter the park in jeeps, however they themselves have no idea what the park looks like other than from stories that they may have heard of. When the park was founded, several villages within its boundaries were cleared and it became forbidden to gather wood and keep cattle there. This did not help to make the Tiger Reserve popular among the locals

ANF is convinced that nature protection starts with good and honest information, instruction and co-operation with the locals. ANF has experienced that its program shows encouraging results and that gradually a change of mentality has been acquired among the local community.

Eco lodge- Environmental Education Centre Bandhavgarh
As an ‘open sky’ environmental education facility the proposed centre plans to encompass the faculties of environment, biology, astronomy and human art of living, and will seek to serve as a guardian of native biotic and cultural resources. Its major aim is to enhance the public's (villagers, schools and visitors) appreciation of, and sense of responsibility for the environment and to raise public awareness and understanding of tigers and the conservation of their habitat.