India: A Spritual Odyssey

By: Dylan Sollenberger
July 2019 Trip to Coimbatore, India


At a Hindu temple near my hometown of Peoria, Illinois, I once asked a man who spent half his life in India and half in the United States, what the difference was between people from both areas. With a big smile on his face, he explained to me that the difference between people is like an onion. Sounds odd, but like the layers of an onion, superficial differences can be peeled away till there is nothing there. No real difference at all. I understood what the man was saying but until my travels to Coimbatore, India I couldn’t capture the full scope of his wisdom.

Before any mention of the trip, I had always wanted to travel to India. My exploration into Eastern Philosophy had greatly intrigued me back home. Upon moving to Laramie, Wyoming to continue my education, I was curious to see how my academia and spiritual endeavors would intersect. I was elated when I found there was an Environmental Policy in India course offered in the spring. My main research project for that course focused on environmental action taken on behalf of spiritual communities near important religious sites. What began as a case study on specific environmental/religious initiatives broadened into an overall study in the relationship between spirituality and biological conservation. When my teacher asked if I would like to travel to India to further explore this theme as part of an elective course I couldn’t refuse. What seemed to be separate roads of academic pursuit and spiritual journey were now appearing to be as one.

After landing in New Delhi International Airport with fellow
student Emma Dixon and Ramesh Sivanpillai (Instructor)

After never thinking I would get out of a plane seat or an airport, I finally arrived in Coimbatore, India. I must admit, it was a lot to take in at first. I had never traveled outside of the United States. I’ve barely ever flown before. Now I’m trying to buy food that I can’t pronounce with money I’ve never seen. Not to mention, I have a hard time understanding solely English-speaking people. Let alone a country where there are many different dialects and accents (you quickly realize the limits of only being taught one language). The traffic, oh my goodness. It seemed to be as if there were more guidelines than actual rules when it came to the road. Sort of a free-for-all, which to people from this area was completely normal. They seemed to navigate the roads almost flawlessly without any conflict. Before getting overwhelmed, I reminded myself of what the man back home said. “Superficial differences”.

Once we got to Amrita University where we were staying, I remember having the overwhelming feeling that I made the right decision coming on this trip. The University was basically located in the middle of the jungle next to these beautiful mountains. It was as if the buildings were part of the nature there, like the grass and the trees. In many highly developed areas you get a feeling of the development choking out nature, but here it all seemed to be perfectly integrated. Walking around campus didn’t feel like a stressed time crunch to get to class, but rather a meditative walk through the forest. Which is another thing. Almost everyone here seemed to walk at a much more relaxed state. I remember on one of my early walks with a good friend I made by the name of Shashank, having to constantly remind myself to slow down. The plants and abundant wildlife on campus really seemed to facilitate this idea of soaking in the little things while going about your daily life. I had yet to meet my spiritual teachers who along with Shashank and a few other amazing students, would be the strongest aid to my research; but I was already beginning to understand the links between spirituality and nature.

Combining conservation and spirituality: Temple under trees

Something I was not aware of before coming on the trip, was just how grounded in spirituality Amrita University truly is. I knew it would be tied to Eastern Philosophy, especially Hinduism, but not on the level I discovered. Founded by the renown spiritual leader, Amma (Mother), Amrita University focuses on blending tradition and materialism. Amma, who I’ve come to appreciate on a monumental scale, believes that the University is like a tree that should be rooted in spirituality and branched in materialism. Instead of thinking of the two as separate, think of them as one that must rely on the other for wholesome survival. She also has the quote that is on all the buses at Amrita University saying, “Love is my Religion”. If there is any way I could explain the power of Amma this quote would be it. Her presence and words have the ability to offer spiritual sanctity to many across the world, and I was beginning to understand why.

An evening stroll

Another vital spiritual leader that helped with my research was a man whom I called Swamiji. Swamiji is Sanskrit for “he who is one with his self” and is usually termed for an ascetic or yogi who has been initiated into a religious monastic order. He oversaw the spiritual practices and offered spiritual advice to students on campus.

Upon meeting him, I was immediately taken back by his kindness and wisdom. He was the one who really laid the framework for the connections into spirituality and conservation that I was exploring here at Coimbatore. He would explain concepts to me that would range from the universal core of all religions to the art of meditation. He was able to elaborate on Eastern concepts that I briefly learned in Illinois but didn’t fully understand. He strongly believed that the core of all religions remains the same, and that there are only superficial differences that give off the false perception of difference. The man and his onion story from back home was now ever so clear.

Whether spending my days studying the different plant and animal species near campus or learning from spiritual gurus who taught insight into the appreciation of these lifeforms, my research was coming along great. I was really starting to understand how having a certain view spiritually can affect how you treat other living organisms and subsequently acts of biological conservation. I was also receiving enormous help from many students on campus, whom I now considered good friends. Which is another important thing to note. I don’t think I met one rude person during my stay in Coimbatore! It was my birthday on one of the last days and the students even threw me a surprise birthday party!

Surprise (Happy) birthday party hosted by Amrita's Center for Computational & Engineering Network (CEN) students

All the different help I received, the man who probably helped me the most was Bill. Bill is an interesting fellow who was introduced to me by Swamiji. He is from California and although he isn’t originally from the Coimbatore area, he understood the mysteries of the universe better than anyone I met. I won’t get too much into Bill as I believe he would prefer the ambiguity as well as I’ve already rambled on too long for this blog (I could talk about India forever). Let’s just say he was a true guru to me during my stay and the spiritual knowledge I gained from him could never be put into words. He helped me find who I was, which in turn had the most substantial effect on my research. I was now looking at this new and different place I was in but no longer seeing a difference. The traffic, buildings, animals, languages, people, all which seemed like crazy differences, were now like the superficial layers of the onion and not actually real to me. Just like the previous perception of myself, which allowed superficial differences to dictate that I was something different than everything around me, I could now understand the concept of universal oneness. The main concept my research was now based upon. Without my trip to India none of this could have happened. I would never have had the opportunity to do research on such an important subject and my own personal spiritual would never had been jump started in such a way that continues to push me today.

Living on Indian Time: Coimbatore, India

By: Emma Dixon
July 2019 Trip to Coimbatore, India

Two weeks is a short time to try and immerse yourself into a new culture. This was the challenge I had coming to Coimbatore.

We stayed at the Coimbatore Campus of Amrita University, where I had the opportunity to meet faculty and befriend several graduate students. The campus was nestled between lush mountains and had some of the most beautiful, manicured gardens I had ever seen. Wandering the expansive grounds or taking in the view from the guest house roof was always a good way to start or end the day.

While two weeks exploring the Amrita campus and surrounding area was not much, it proved ample time to learn several important lessons.


Lesson one: Flexibility.

We think that we are flexible in the United States but being willing to reschedule and change plans still requires having a rigid plan in the first place. The first several days, I most likely asked Ramesh what the plan for the upcoming day was several times.

While we would make a tentative working plan for the upcoming day, it was subject to change depending on variables out of our control. The feeling of not having an idea of what will happen made me uncomfortable. It went against everything I had learned in the United States.

The view from the back of the first
auto rickshaw I have ever ridden in

Nonetheless, there is a lot to be said for not always having a rigid schedule. Being open to spontaneous opportunities and viewing time as a bendable concept instead of a rigid one allows you to participate in experiences you never dreamed of.

Not getting the taxi you planned on leads to an amazing trip in an autorickshaw (an open-air motorized vehicle with three wheels).

Randomly stopping to talk with a shop owner or farmer prompts an invitation to have tea or tender coconut in their home.

If I had been back in the United States, I doubt that I would have been able to say yes to all of these opportunities, or if they would have even been offered in the first place.

Roast - a dish made from a paste of rice and lenti
at one of the three Amrita University cafeterias. Delicious!

Lesson two: Hospitality

Many people in the United States would not think to invite in a stranger they have talked to for twenty minutes for tea and food, but the hospitality and kindness of many people in India run deep.

I am so grateful for the many people I met and the myriad of ways they showed little acts of kindness. Whether it be making sure I ate good food, giving me a flower or making tea, they showed that they cared.





Lesson three: Spicy vs. Hot

Puttu, a dish that consisted of rice rolled in coconut
& kdalai curry, a side dish made with beans and spices

Many of the dishes I got to try were heavy on green chili and whole black peppercorn which challenged my spice tolerance, or heat tolerance, as I should say. 

While I was there, I learned that spicy food means food rich in a variety of spices, not hot, which is the correct terminology for food that sets your mouth on fire.




Overall, I am looking forward to returning to Coimbatore sometime within the next year or two so that I can learn even more of the culture and human elephant conflict occurring there.

Competition for Resources between Humans and Elephants: Lessons Learned from Coimbatore, India

By: Emma Dixon
July 2019 Trip to Coimbatore, India

Born and raised in Kansas, the breadbasket of the United States, where the main pests’ farmers worry about are insects, rodents and birds, I could never have imagined researching human elephant conflict.

 A coconut farm in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. It takes more than 20 years for the coconut trees to reach this height and provide consistent yield. Several trees can be damaged in during an elephant raid.

Human elephant conflict (HEC) is the competition for shared resources that is mainly a result of the fragmentation and degradation of the Asian elephant’s habitat. This can often lead to a lack of food, water and space for the elephants.

India, home to a majority of Asian elephant population, witnesses several HEC incidents annually that results in both human and elephant casualties.

An employee at the local temple describes how elephants
access the water in the tank. This footprint was left
by an elephant only few hours before we visited this temple.

The farmers in and around Coimbatore, a city in Southern India has taken the brunt of the consequences as elephants commonly raid certain crops like coconut, plantain, sorghum, maize (corn), and areca nut for food, and other cash crops trampled.

Having their crops eaten by elephants causes great economic damage to the farmers who rely on their crops to support their families.

By talking to the farmers and villagers impacted by HEC and seeing the physical barriers they have built to protect their crops and properties, my understanding of this multidimensional issue grew.

There are so many different stakeholder viewpoints, some of the farmers viewing the elephant with understanding/respect and others with fear/dislike.

Learning more of the factors that have created this problem and could lead to its solution will take time, but I know that everything I learn through this project can be used on future issues that require an interdisciplinary solution.

With the villagers who described their experiences with elephant raids.

I plan to visit this area in near future and collect more data to further my understanding of this problem.  My future research and subsequent publications will allow the scientists and policymakers working on solutions to HEC to understand the issue in greater depth.

Impact of Prosopis Juliflora on the environment

By Andrea Weber
August 2017 trip to Coimbatore, India

In Spring 2017, I began my research journey with writing a literature review from newspaper and journal articles about an invasive tree species, Prosopis juliflora, known as seema karuvelai, in Tamil Nadu, India. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to India in Summer 2017. My trip to India was amazing and exciting, but is hard to describe in more words. We stayed in a women’s hostel at a co-ed university. The girls were amazing and caring. They made us feel right at home, and shared their research journeys with us.

P. juliflora tree with ripe seed pods growing near Sulur Lake, Coimbatore, India.

While in India, my focus was to discuss an invasive species, Prosopis juliflora with the people, to really understand the impacts it has on the wildlife and humans. After talking with people from many settings, rural, city, mountain, scholarly, I was able to gather enough information to understand this tree from the ground, from the people using it and living with it.

A woman cutting juliflora tree for domestic fuel wood.

In terms of the work we conducted, I learned that knowing people within the field you are researching is extremely important. Things are not always laid out nicely, like they are in a lab manual. If you need information about a certain species of tree that is growing in the area, it is important to gather information from people who have studied it, and people that have lived with it. I learned that it can be difficult to communicate with people who don’t speak the same language, and that sometimes questions need to be worded or approached differently.

Andrea Weber (left) and Mackensie Swift in a restaurant in Coimbatore, India

The information that I gathered from goat farmers, cow farmers, medicine men, and university scholars, were similar, in comparison to what the government newspapers were stating. Through this experience, I am much more aware of the challenges that research presents, such as working around obstacles in the field and with communication.

Experiences of a U.S. Science Educator in Coimbatore, India

By Sarah 'Katie' Guffey 
July-August 2016 trip to Coimbatore, India

With the population in the United States rapidly changing, it’s helpful for US teachers to understand educational systems throughout the world. Traveling to India allowed me to experience their educational system first hand. Perhaps surprisingly, our schools systems have many commonalities, including the types of schools, subjects offered, and teacher training programs.

While in Coimbatore (a city in Tamil Nadu state), I was able to witness the K-12 system and observe the primary school teachers. Overall, the education system in India and the US are quite similar. Primary schools in India (kindergarten & standards 1 through 5) are equivalent to US elementary schools (grades K-5). Similar to the US public, charter, and private schools, India has various types of K-12 schools including State Government Board, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), among others.

Tamil Nadu State Board schools use a card system to keep track of academic milestones. Teachers use this and supplemental materials as a curriculum guide.

There are Tamil medium schools where all subjects are taught in Tamil and English medium schools where subjects are taught in English.

The first school I visited was a Tamil medium school that was following the Tamil Nadu State Board curriculum. All students will enroll in an English language course however, but rest of the subjects were taught in Tamil.

The majority of students were from a low socioeconomic background. The teachers will have roughly 35-45 students in each class. There was no cafeteria on the school grounds so most students pack their lunch. Similar to the US, if a student’s family falls within a certain socioeconomic status, lunch is provided by the government each day.

On average, only 3 to 4 students miss school each day and it is the student and teacher’s responsibility to make up missed work and instruction. The card system allows the teacher to know exactly where the student was academically before he/she missed school.

The second teacher was from a CBSE, English medium school. All subjects were taught in English with students given the option to take an additional language (Hindu, Tamil, French, etc.). The majority of students are from a middle, socioeconomic background. Generally, teachers will have between 25-35 students in each class. This school differs from the state board school in that the students have access to computers. This allows the teacher to implement the use of a class website. In addition to the card system, students also have a textbook and a workbook. On average, 1-2 students miss class each day however, most teachers will receive notification from the parent if the child is planning to miss school. Individual instruction will be provided during the child’s physical education class to make up for missed classwork.

Visiting these classrooms and talking to teachers allowed to interact with many talented teachers and gain valuable insights that will help me to teach an ever-changing student population in the US.

Anne Nicole Reed wins second place in the 2016 Best Undergraduate Research Projects award

Anne 'Nicole' Reed won second place in the Best Undergraduate Research Project award in 2016 Wyoming Undergraduate Day for her human-elephant conflict research in India. UW's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) selected three student presentations to honor excellence in UW undergraduate Research. Nicole shared second place with another student Roslyn Fleming (English Honors Program).

Nicole presented her research findings and insights she gained from the field trip to India. After completing the literature-based research in spring 2015 on human-elephant conflict, she traveled to India in summer 2015 with Alanna Elder (BS Agroecology & ENR) to gain first-hand information about this problem, and how people and elephants are tolerating each other.

These prizes, according to Dr. Rachel Watson, were offered to research presentations that showcased the "interfaces between science and the human condition addressed in a nuanced way that shows understanding and not simply consideration".

Dr. Watson and a panel of judges reviewed 270 abstracts and selected 9 semi-finalists. Judges attended each of these 9 presentations and selected three winners. Nicole received this award at the banquet on April 30, 2016.

Human-elephant conflict: an experience with stakeholders in Southern India

Alanna Elder
August 2015 trip to Coimbatore, India


During the spring of 2015, I took the Environmental Policy, Conservation and Development in India. The class provided a snapshot of environmental challenges in India, and then we chose topics for individual study. I began a literature review of human – elephant conflict and spent the next three months in Laramie getting lost in the library’s database; in the vastness of India; in a problem that puzzles land managers around the world. By the end of the semester, I had a paper that I thought was accurate and an understanding that was almost tangible because I dug for it. I doubted, however, whether everything I had read would check out on the ground. In order to confirm that what I wrote was real, I wanted to see humans, elephants, and their overlapping territories in real dimensions.

Nicole and Alanna visited a corridor frequently
used by the elephants to obtain water

Thanks to funding from the College of Agriculture’s SEND program, and the Haub School for Environment and Natural Resource’s Research and Creative Activities grant, I was able to do just that.

I traveled to Coimbatore, India in August 2015 with Dr. Sivanpillai, ENR professor Courtney Carlson, and Nicole Reed, a classmate who had researched crop raiding by elephants.

There we met two faculty members from Kongunadu Arts and Sciences College, Drs. S. Raja (Zoologists) and K. Thenmozhi (Botanist). They guided us to farms and forest offices and provided insight into elephant behavior and the effects of invasive plants on elephant habitat.

Coimbatore Forest District is a hot zone for the human-elephant conflict in the state of Tamil Nadu, and includes agricultural plains as well as the rain forest reserves of the Western Ghats.

Farmers use these observation decks for monitoring elephant movement

Forest Department reports Dr. Raja had acquired showed that one range within the district had the highest rates of crop raiding, so that was where we started. Our conversations with farmers, officials and scientists sometimes echoed verbatim what we had read, or even cited articles we recognized. Still, these perspectives were fuller coming from people with a stake in the problem. The broken fences were theirs, and the trampled crops. Some had the memory of meeting an elephant, a reverence for the animal, a home to keep or a landscape to preserve.

Nearly everyone we talked to attributes the problem to habitat loss, as city borders continue to expand into forests formerly dominated by wildlife. The farmers we met made clear the choices of people living along the forest boundary, who would attempt to protect crops with trenches, fences, or night guarding. Some had switched from high-sucrose plants to curry, which elephants don’t generally touch. Others had given up farming altogether.

Inside a brick kiln in Coimbatore

A tribal woman living along an elephant corridor told us that she and her family had quit growing beans to work in a brick kiln. We could spot its tongue of smoke in the valley below her home. Thirty years ago, she had only seen elephants on occasion, and from a distance. Now, they pass her house almost daily. She said, “Where else can they go?”

Another family we visited had lost five coconut trees in two weeks. In one field, they showed us a trunk rubbed smooth by an elephant trying to uproot the tree. Nearby a tree was grounded, carved out of the kernels elephants tend to eat. The couple had electric fencing (not entirely elephant proof) around a different field, but chose to leave this one open, knowing that wildlife in the area were stressed for water. Who were they to stand in the way of survival?

Survival was an idea we heard throughout the trip, and it became increasingly hard to pin down. It is a motive, a reality, an apology – it is a force that puts every living thing in conflict with something else. According to the family, a man was harvesting dirt illegally from the land adjacent to their farm, selling soil to buy his food. Behind this field with the toppled coconuts, there was a slow-growing cavern in the scrub. The papers I read could not have shown me what survival looked like.

The human-elephant conflict that is changing India and the research that shaped our summer

Anne Nicole Reed

August 2015 trip to Coimbatore, India

This summer I had the opportunity to travel to India to learn about the human-elephant conflict. This trip was a follow up to the spring ENR policy course in which we studied policy related decisions in Southern India. After looking at many subjects Alanna Elder, Dalton Nelson, and I chose to work on the ongoing human-elephant conflict. The papers we wrote on this subject were the beginning stages of our research in India. We focused our efforts in Southern India along the Western Ghats mountain range.

This trip was an eye opening experience, I not only was fortunate enough to learn about the elephant issues in this region and what they are doing to remedy this, but I also learned about their culture which I think is a large aspect to solving any human wildlife conflicts.

In Southern India there are many conflicts that occur between the wildlife and humans, however, one of the largest that has been escalated since the 1980s is the human-elephant conflict.

Although there has continually been conflict between the two, in the 1980s began large-scale human expansion into the elephant habitat.

The crop damage or crop loss has been substantial on a local level which is the true source of frustration for the farmers. Both elephants and humans have lost their lives in this conflict.

While in India we visited with many farmers and locals to better understand the situation from this aspect but we also visited with forestry officials and scientists to also receive it from an official stand point.

Gaining a better understanding of the problem:
one perspective at-a-time. Farmers describe
how elephants destroy their crops.

By speaking with many different people it was easy to see how split people are on this subject and why it can be difficult to find long standing solutions.

While I enjoyed learning from the many people we met I believe my favorite aspect to this trip was getting to know the locals and being able to have in depth conversations with them because this adds another layer to the research that you would otherwise not have if just basing the research on literature.

I am thankful for this opportunity and plan to travel to this area again if given the opportunity.

Alanna Elder and Nicole Reed (right) observe the elephants in their feeding camp.

I believe this trip was well worth the effort and I look forward to furthering my studies with Dr. Sivanpillai through working with the Konganadu College of Arts and Science on the elephant crop destruction. This study not only has helped me on an educational level but a personal level as well.