When I caught up with Ayan Banerjee this week, he had completed 2935 kilometres in 116 days as he walks the entire coastline of India to spread the message about veganism. This is outreach on an epic scale. In total, the 23-year-old’s walk will take one year and will comprise around 7000 km.
Ayan started in West Bengal and he has now moved down the east coast as far as Puducherry. Some time in the next couple of months, he will reach the foot of India and will start his way up the west coast, ending in the state of Gujarat, near the border with Pakistan. In so doing, he will have traced a giant ‘v’ for veganism.
On his way, he is engaging with anyone he meets, as well as visiting schools (more than 30 to date) and NGOs. His journey understandably elicits lots of interest and many conversations, opening up the opportunity to talk about veganism within the context of overall compassion for all creatures.
He has had plenty of coverage in local media and posts on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and his own website. The latter is https://karunapadayatra.com/. Karuna means empathy; Padayatra is a journey on foot with a purpose. He has also distributed more than 3000 seeds for growing trees. He always declines donations of money but asks instead for hugs and now keeps a ‘hug counter’, currently well past 400.
For most of the time, he has set out each day not knowing where he will stay the following night but has found generous hosts throughout the journey. So far, more or less all of his experiences have been good ones, he says, with few mishaps, no physical harm and only a few arguments. In fact, reflecting the generosity that he has encountered, he tells me that he has actually put on weight – 90 kg compared with 84 kg when he set off.
Interestingly, when he stays at someone’s home, they often tell him that, while their community is kind, the next one is not. Then at that next community, he is told the same. Perhaps predictably, he has found the most kindness in rural areas, with people more willing to engage and in less of a hurry than in the cities (he passed through Kolkata fairly early on).
Having turned vegan while at school, Ayan found that the most common questions were to do with health, he says, so he decided to “debunk the myths”. Prior to his latest project, he had completed a 200 km run, followed by a virtual walk of 3600 km in 126 days.
How many people is he influencing? That’s impossible to tell but he has had some tangible successes. For instance, at an orphanage in Andhra Pradesh called the Icha Foundation, where he stayed for a day, there is now the commitment to have an initial two days a week of vegan meals. With around 50 orphans, that is 1200 meals per month. An NGO, Bodhi Greens Foundation, which aims to ‘revolutionise lives through whole food plant-based nutrition’, is aiding the orphanage in its transition.
Ayan is currently having some well-earned rest before setting off again on 28th July. Until the last few days, he has been staying at Sadhana Forest in the UNESCO-endorsed township of Auroville. Sadhana Forest comprises 70 acres of previously eroded, arid land. Since 2003, this has been a centre for sustainable living, substance-free community life, natural learning, veganism, and gift economy, with a focus on regenerating the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF), an endangered ecosystem unique to the region. There are now eight permanent Sadhana Forest centres across India, Haiti, Kenya, and Namibia. Each is a vibrant volunteer-led campus that works with local communities to plant indigenous, drought resistant, food-bearing trees, build water conservation structures, and co-create a sustainable future.
Even while ‘resting’, Ayan has been visiting schools. He has been invited to visit one of these, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, for a third time in the next few days, such has been the level of interest.
On 1st August, he is due to be joined for a day by Dr Sailesh Rao, founder of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated to healing the Earth’s climate, which includes campaigning for a vegan world.
At some point towards the end of his walk, Ayan will pass through Dandi in Gujarat, the destination of Mahatma Gandhi’s salt march, part of the fight for Indian independence. Where Gandhi once triumphed, hopefully Ayan will do so as well, in his own quest to build a more sustainable and compassionate world.
To follow Ayan’s journey:
https://www.instagram.com/thekarunapadayatra?igsh=cWZhYjVlazd4a2R1
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