India: Wildlife Conservation

Arrive in New Delhi and meet your Rustic leaders for the week! Enjoy the sights and sounds of New Delhi, India’s exciting capital city, and get to know your Rustic leaders during an evening discussion about India and your upcoming adventure!

After breakfast, drive from New Delhi to Agra for your first day at the Agra Bear Rescue Facility (ABRF). Once you’ve settled in, meet the Wildlife SOS members and watch a documentary about the history of dancing bears and the rehabilitative work of Wildlife SOS with both the sloth bears and the Kalandar community.

Enjoy a cup of chai as you discuss your responsibilities over the next few days. See the sloth bears and elephants in their homes as your tour their rescue facilities.

Today your service starts! Your main tasks will include monitoring bear behavior, washing and preparing food, feeding the bears, and cleaning bear dens. Your group will also have an opportunity to design and construct an enrichment structure for a bear enclosure.

After lunch and a midday nap, participate in the evening bear routine followed by your group’s orientation at the elephant facility. On your way home, stop by a local fruit stand before a traditional Indian dinner. After dinner, prepare bear popsicles with the fruit you purchased earlier!

Rise early and walk the elephants! Each student will be paired with an elephant to walk and feed through the beautiful Indian landscape. Learn about the unique challenges the elephants face prior to their rescue. Later, you’ll learn to feed and bathe the elephants. Everyday, lunch will be an array of vegetarian Indian dishes served by the ABRF. After lunch, your group will participate in an evening bear routine. Then, head back to the base house for a delicious Indian dinner followed by a movie night with popcorn and ice cream!

Today, you’ll hop on a boat for a bird watching tour down the serene Yamuna river! Afterwards, hop on a safari vehicle in search of antelope, hyenas, porcupines, deer, and more!

Head back to the ABRF for lunch and make final adjustments to your enrichment structure design before construction. Your group will build the enrichment structure in one of the bear enclosures with the help of Wildlife SOS staff. Once complete, take joy in seeing the bears play on your structure! Tonight, your group will tour a marble factory, wander the local market, and enjoy dinner out in Agra.

It’s your last day of volunteering, so soak up every minute with the elephants before you say goodbye. You’ll then tour the ABRF hospital and gift shop before participating in your last bear routine. It’ll be hard to say goodbye to the bears, but there will be no bear hugs.

In the evening, head to Sapera village for a special event. The tribe of the Sapera village used to work as snake charmers, which kills snakes, and is a practice now banned from the Indian constitution. Wildlife SOS helped put an end to this practice and now the village works as snake rescuers.

After a week of volunteering, it’s time for a treat — visiting the Taj Mahal! Get up early and catch the Taj Mahal at sunrise. After, you’ll visit the Agra Fort and learn about the Mughal Empire and Shan Jahan — the emperor who constructed the Taj Mahal.

After driving back to New Delhi, explore the bazaars one last chance for the perfect souvenir. End with a farewell dinner and get ready for your transition home.

Say goodbye to your Rustic team. We hope to see you soon!