Our story
From one school eco club to a foundation
Nature Bodies began as an Eco Club at Bharat Mata English Medium Higher Secondary School in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, founded by Panu Halder. What started as a handful of students has run continuously for close to two decades.
Many of the young people who carry out the organisation's street-theatre and awareness work today came into the eco club as students the club worked directly with, and stayed on as performers, organisers, and leaders in their own right.
As the work grew beyond one school and one city, the group incorporated formally as Nature Bodies Foundation, a Section 8 non-profit company, to take on larger, government- and corporate-partnered campaigns while keeping the same volunteer-led, community-first way of working.
Mission
Nature Bodies Foundation is an organisation of enthusiasts working to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through awareness campaigns and community participation. Environment, biodiversity and forest conservation, and waste management are our primary areas of action.
Involve every individual in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Sensitise every individual toward an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle.
Unite forces to protect the natural resources of the earth.
Develop environmental consciousness in every individual of society.
Make young people environmental leaders of change.
How we work
Learn
Understand the environmental and ecological challenges facing our communities, from field research to public biodiversity registers.
Act
Turn understanding into direct action - cleanups, plantation drives, water conservation structures, and campaigns that reach people where they are.
Aware
Carry the message further through street theatre, digital campaigns, and public events that make the invisible cost of inaction visible.
Conserve
Build lasting local capacity - trained volunteers, community groups, and habits that outlast any single campaign.
Team
The people behind the work
Panu Halder
Founder & Director
Founded the Nature Bodies Eco Club at Bharat Mata School, Bilaspur, and has led its growth into a formally incorporated foundation over nearly two decades, bringing street theatre, biodiversity documentation, and youth leadership together as one continuous practice.
Ranjana Tamboli
Director
Co-leads Nature Bodies Foundation as Director, guiding the organisation's institutional direction alongside its founder.
Poonam Singh
Core Team
Leads community-facing programmes and student engagement, with award-recognised case studies in plastic-waste reduction and traffic safety.
Himangi Halder
Core Team
Coordinates youth-facing awareness work and biodiversity documentation, including public biodiversity registers across Chhattisgarh districts.
Recognition
Recognised nationally and internationally - for the work, not the ask
Wipro Earthian Award 2016
Volvo Adventure Young Environmentalist Award 2011 (3rd, Global)
Winner, Great Global Cleanup Campaign 2019 (Earth Day Network, 49 Cities)
National Level Best Eco Club Award, MoEF&CC, 2019
UN Water Prize 2017
Guinness Book of World Records, 2017 (largest canvas painting, mixed media)
Children's Book of World Record, 2017 (60 soak pits in 60 minutes)
India Star Book of Record - Mission Gaj Mitra
Recognised at UNCCD COP-14, New Delhi
Legal & transparency
A registered organisation, with the paperwork to prove it
Legal name: Nature Bodies Foundation
Status: Section 8 (non-profit) company
Registered address: Hemu Nagar, Near East Cabin No. 1, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh – 495004
Directors: Panu Halder, Ranjana Tamboli
Eco Club registration: Nature Bodies Eco Club is registered under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC)