The Shola Trust · The Real Elephant Collective · WildCarbon

It took 3 organisations and 20 years to earn the right to do this work

Field science from The Shola Trust. A community-owned harvesting enterprise from The Real Elephant Collective. And now WildCarbon, which turns the removed Lantana into stable biochar and carbon finance so the removal funds itself.

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The road here

From the creators of the Lantana Elephants

Committed to Indigenous livelihoods and forest health

The Shola Trust ~ 2005 to 2007

Decades of ecological research

Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara and fellow conservationists founded The Shola Trust (TST) in Gudalur. Through field science and community advocacy, we set out to protect India's most threatened forests - UNESCO Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

The Shola Trust ~ 2007 to 2010

Trust that can't be bought

On our first attempt, we trained the Soligas, Betakurubas, Irulas, Kattunayakan, and Paniya Indigenous communities to fashion rustic, household furniture out of Lantana camara’s woody outer stalks.

We retired from the furniture business after three years. While it supported dozens of artisans, hand-crafted furniture could not realistically clear 200,000+ hectares of invaded forest floor.

Three years on the ground transformed our operational model. We adapted our daily workflows to match how these communities organize, communicate, make decisions, and prefer to work. In doing so, we earned the trust of Indigenous forest stewards who saw we were committed to equal, long-term ownership and not just hiring temporary labor for an initiative.

The Shola Trust ~ 2010 to 2012

The true scale of invasion, measured

The Shola Trust, alongside leading research institutes, conducted intensive studies to map the alarming spread of Lantana camara in the Nilgiris.

The data revealed five distinct threats:

Dense thickets choked 35% of the reserve

Actively suppressed native understory vegetation

Wildlife migration corridors were blocked

Wildlife are forced into farmlands in search of forage

Manual cutting without biomass removal led to rapid, aggressive regrowth

Clearing invasive weeds at landscape scale to save the ecosystem required a self-funding, circular model that transformed harvested biomass into economic value.

The Shola Trust ~ 2014

The setback that shaped our journey

The Shola Trust secured an innovative R&D grant from the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology to turn harvested Lantana biomass into bio-briquettes near Mudumalai. But the project was ultimately shelved due to the forest departments’ regulatory challenges.

This meant: long-term ecological work inside protected forests requires joint operational structures with government forestry officials and Indigenous village institutions from day one.

The Real Elephant Collective ~ 2015 to 2016

From invasive to invaluable

In 2015, Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara and Gautam Subhash co-founded The Real Elephant Collective (TREC) to translate conservation research into a self-funding, Indigenous community-owned enterprise that pays for invasive plant removal.

By 2016, Indigenous artisans built the first life-sized elephant sculptures out of harvested Lantana camara stalks, modeling them after real, wild elephants in the Nilgiri hills. This launched an international art exhibition campaign that converted invasive biomass directly into income for forest stewards.

The Real Elephant Collective ~ 2016 to 2020

Proving the community model

Over four years, TREC established a network of decentralized workshops run entirely by local Indigenous artisans.

By refining sculpture production, local teams built self-sustaining conservation enterprises. We supported 300+ Indigenous artisans and generated over $1.2 million directly in community payouts proving that community-run restoration can generate substantial economic value.

The Real Elephant Collective ~ 2021

Government-grade access

In 2021, TREC was the sole applicant to bid for and win a major competitive government tender issued by the Karnataka Forest Department to remove invasive species inside protected forest reserves.

Backed by deep community roots and field experience, the organization expanded beyond art exhibitions to become a large-scale forestry restoration operator.

The Real Elephant Collective ~ 2022 to 2024

Research, development, and technology

Manual clearing was too slow to achieve landscape-level forest recovery and heavy construction machinery damaged delicate topsoil.

TREC’s in-house community engineering team spent three years designing and field-testing proprietary custom machinery: Harvesting Units (HUs).

These specialized mobile units combine a mechanical winch with an industrial biomass shredder - and can be operated by a 14-person team to clear and shred up to 2.4 tonnes of Lantana per day with minimal ecological impact.

The Real Elephant Collective ~ 2024 to 2025

Ready for more than art

The Great Elephant Migration exhibition toured globally through London, Hollywood, and Boston, selling over 250 life-sized sculptures annually to philanthropists.

While Lantana art cleared hundreds of hectares and supported 300+ Indigenous families, it could not clear the 200,000+ hectares of invaded ancient forests.

To clear entire forest reserves, we had to stop relying on art and instead convert harvested Lantana into a bulk commodity: biochar.

WildCarbon ~ 2025 to today

Ongoing habitat restoration, financed by biochar

Merging conservation and indigenous stewardship with carbon finance

Mission

To remove invasive flora at landscape-scale across the UNESCO Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, by converting the biomass into stable, soil-grade biochar through localized pyrolysis.

With this circular model, we durably sequester carbon, restore native grasslands, reopen wildlife migration corridors, and vest enterprise co-ownership in the hands of Indigenous forest stewards.

Vision

A self-sustaining ecosystem across the UNESCO Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve where carbon removal, forest restoration, and regenerative farming fund one another to create a repeatable model for degraded habitats worldwide.

Why now? The vision of using carbon finance through biochar dates back to 2019. The co-founders agreed that a venture would only be launched when we were sure it could be sustainable on all fronts. We needed to be sure of many important aspects of our work before moving ahead.

Key challenges we needed to meet were proving removal could be cost-effective and ecologically sensitive whilst rewarding the community, establishing deep partnerships with the forest authorities on invasive control, ensuring invasives became an accepted biomass with Puro.earth and state of the art pyrolysis equipment made and maintained locally.

The forest

6,500 hectares of degraded habitat restored, replanted from a nursery already raising 30+ native species and 3 million+ grass slips a year

The community

1,000+ indigenous families earning steady, skilled income, with 26% of the enterprise structured as community co-ownership

The carbon

Sequester 55,000 tCO2e in certified carbon removal credits priced at $200/tCO2e, backed by satellite tracking, drone mapping, and bioacoustic AI monitoring

The soil

35,000 tonnes of biochar returned to tea and coffee estates and smallholder farms across the region

A thriving biodiversity conservation network

Bringing the forest back to life, together

Collective action for long-term habitat restoration

Adivasi communities

Solega, Betakuruba, Irula, Kattunayakan, and Paniya Indegenous communities are the ancestral guardians of forests.

They co-own the enterprise, earn fair livelihoods, and protect their native homes for generations to come.

Adivasi communities

Farmers and estates

Regional tea and coffee growers and local farmers take our biochar into their soil, where it holds carbon for centuries.

We work alongside them to heal depleted agricultural soils, build natural drought resilience, and protect the livelihoods of regional food producers.

Farmers and estates

Financial backers

Climate backers, philanthropists, and visionary investors who share our long-term mission.

We give them a meaningful, high-integrity way to invest in ancient forests, real human lives, and durable carbon removal.

Financial backers

Technology and certification partners

Hardware innovators, digital tracking teams, and carbon standards authorities.

We collaborate with them to ensure every step of our field restoration is transparent, trustworthy, and built on tools that adapt to human needs.

Technology and certification partners

Research institutes

Field ecologists, university researchers, and conservation scientists.

We look to them to anchor every restoration effort in deep ecological science, native seed propagation, and forest understory health.

Research institutes

Forest departments

State forest authorities across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala.

We align with them to ensure total regulatory compliance, access to protected reserves, and long-term legal alignment across wildlife corridors.

Forest departments

The team behind WildCarbon

No one restores a forest alone

Field scientists, engineers, and community leads who started it all

Founding & Strategic Leadership

Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara

Co-Founder & Director

Ecology & Conservation Science

Andrew MacCormack

Co-Founder & Director

Carbon Markets & Finance

Gautam Subhash

Co-Founder & Director

Community Enterprise & Operations

Arvind Adhi

Strategic Partner

Quality & Manufacturing Oversight

Corporate & Strategic Operations

Ranjini

Operations & Governance Lead

Alissa Barnes

Communications & Partner Relations

Amrita

Program Coordinator & Registry Lead

Mani

Finance & Administrative Lead

Ierene Francis

Impact Communications & Field Storytelling

Engineering & Field Hardware

Kannan

Lead Mechanical Technician (HU Systems)

Arun

Pyrolysis Equipment & Kiln Maintenance

Harvesting & Field Operations

Ramesh

Field Unit Coordinator (Protected Reserves)

Madhu

Adivasi Self-Help Group Supervisor

Logistics & Supply Chain

Sebastien

Biomass Transport & Facility Logistics

Biochar & Soil Science

Praveen

Biochar Agronomy & Field Trial Lead

Smitha

Soil Testing & Agricultural Outreach

Communications

Sagari

Video Editor

Satish

Filmmaker

Nikita

Designer

An open invitation

We'd rather show you than tell you

Everything about WildCarbon is easier to trust when you're with us on the ground. You can watch a self-help group clear and shred Lantana with a Harvesting Unit our own team builds. You can see cleared ground being replanted with native grass. You can visit a tea estate where the biochar is already improving the soil. What reads as claims on a website reads as ordinary work when you're there.

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info@wildcarbon.eco

+91 7598938326

Begur, Chamrajnagar, Karnataka