Impact
It began with elephants
Why a gin company supports a foundation that started by protecting Asian elephants in Assam.
The Balipara Foundation was founded in 2007 by Prabir Banerjea and Ranjit Barthakur, in Assam. It began as a commitment to protecting Asian elephants and grew into something larger once it became clear that the fate of forests, wildlife and people could not be separated.
That realisation became Naturenomics™, built on the idea that ecology is economy. Under its Rural Futures framework, communities run the nurseries, plant and manage the buffer zones, and earn from the forests they regenerate. They are the stewards of the restoration rather than bystanders to it.
Figures published by the Balipara Foundation, early 2025.
The Great People's Forest
With Conservation International, the Foundation is scaling The Great People's Forest of the Eastern Himalayas. The current phase plans 20 million trees, more than 61,000 hectares restored and over 178,000 people benefiting, stretching from the mountains to the mangroves across Northeast India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The longer ambition is a billion trees and a million hectares by 2030.
Why it is our business
The Eastern Himalaya is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth and one of the fastest changing. India's botanical wealth, the citrus, the jamun, the pepper, the wild ingredients that make Indian spirits worth making, depends on habitats like it staying intact. A spirits company built on Indian ingredients has a direct interest in the land those ingredients come from.
It is printed on the neck of every bottle: No Planet, No Party.