Samantha

A postgraduate in English Literature, Samantha has her roots in the township of Coonoor Nilgiris, where she presently resides.

An inborn ardour for travel made her take up a course in Travel and Tourism after her post graduation. After an eight year stint with various reputed airline companies and travel agencies, she set up her own travel agency, YATRA, in Coonoor. The very same passion as well made her frequently tour not only through the length and breadth of this country, but also abroad, and she is known to have frequented African, European and South East Asian countries.

Mark Twain is known to have stated that travel broadens a person’s outlook and makes one take a sympathetic view of the world around. Little wonder that she developed a liking for the wilds and God’s creatures both great and small that dwell therein, an affection which made her take up nature / wildlife photography in earnest. The very same fondness soon made her to take up campaigning for environmental issues, and this she does effectively through various social media platforms ; Adopt a Forest, a group involved in afforesting the Hills, and the Wynter-Blyth association, a body of butterfly enthusiasts working towards setting up butterfly gardens in schools and developing a keen interest in nature in young minds ; being a few.

One of the very small number of unassuming individuals who possess compassion both for humanity and the wilderness, Coonoor town from 2014 onwards, witnessed her founding and heading the movement, ‘Clean Coonoor,’ an organisation committed to clean up activities in and around this town, and to serve as a bridge of communication between the municipal authorities and the general populace. She is also a member of the Citizen’s Forum of Coonoor in which she helps out in initiatives both eleemosynary and municipal. Her links with corporates such as the United Planter’s Association of South India (UPASI), the Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation Limited (TANTEA) and others, have facilitated much in mobilising much needed volunteers and acquire sponsorships for the many social awareness programmes, clean up drives, tree planting and other environment related activities that the town of Coonoor has witnessed. On the social platform, her Facebook Group named Coonoorian is a model of all its kind, where issues related to this district are widely discussed.

Her community oriented ventures do not confine themselves to this town alone, for she only too willingly lends a helping hand to other organisations in Ooty and Kotagiri.

Samantha’s dream project was to clean up and prevent further sullying of the Coonoor River, an uphill task for her and her team, but which through her undaunted resolve and perseverance, is sure to materialise and succeed.