I will be away for a month in India this summer with a team of girls from college. We will volunteer for The Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust, an NGO that works to improve human-animal relationships in the Ladakh area. Ladakh cannot be reached for six moths every year due to the extreme winter in the Hiamalayas and it is quite a poor area in India where people rely on the survival of their livestock to survive themselves. Sadly, snow leopards and other predators often attack the livestock and kill several animals in one attack. Losing 19 goats at once is a devastating loss for many Ladakhi farmers and there are reports of farmers killing the leopards for revenge. I am not sure how true these reports are since Ladakhis are peaceful people but one thing is sure: there is increasing tension between wildlife and humans.

We are going to volunteer for the NGO for a week and we will build livestock enclosures which make it difficult for leopards to kill the animals or we will work in schools making people aware of how to preserve the Himalayan environment. This project is very dear to me because I love helping people and I have wanted to help save endangered animals since I have been a child. I am very excited and grateful that I can do both!