The Liana Trust seeks to enable community-led conservation and education in rural India.

What We Do

Rural Education Reform

We hope to enable a generation of care-takers for nature; because only what we feel compassion & wonder for, are we moved to protect & conserve. Often communities living around wild spaces lack access to relevant, inspiring education.

Growing Our Wilderness

Being a stone’s throw away from one of the most dense tiger populations on the planet has revealed the urgent need for extensive conservation action in the agricultural landscapes that fringe the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.

Human-Snake Conflict Mitigation

Snakes thrive in agricultural landscapes and conflict is high with an estimated one million people getting bitten every year in India. To co-exist, an understanding of how to mitigate risk and a shift in both mindset and habit are key.

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Living with Snakes Exhibit

With the support of the Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Foundation, we have opened an interactive, bilingual exhibit on snakes and snakebite awareness. The outreach centre features exhibits covering an introduction to snakes, safe coexistence, common myths, snakebite first aid protocols, and a glimpse into research and fieldwork. Over the next three years, the initiative aims to create immersive learning experiences for school children in rural Karnataka for free, especially students from across the Mysore district.

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News

The Snakebite Comic

There is widespread misinformation surrounding snakebite treatment. In a situation where time is of the essence, proper first aid and immediate hospitalisation saves lives. Even today, practices like tying a rope or going to alternative healers cause needless loss of life. As part of our outreach efforts in collaboration with The Habitats Trust, we have created an educational comic to teach accurate first aid response. The comic is currently available in English and Kannada, and we are in the process of translating it into five additional regional languages for wider distribution across India.

A free download of the comic is available on our resources page.

Launch of Serpentarium

In February 2022, we inaugurated our serpentarium in Hunsur, Karnataka, to provide high-quality venom free of charge that enables the production of effective and affordable antivenom production. With the ability to house around 400 snakes in enriched, naturalistic vivaria, the facility produces WHO-compliant venom while setting new standards in snake husbandry and research. We supply venom from Karnataka’s medically significant snakes to WHO-certified manufacturers, advancing both snake conservation research and life-saving antivenom production nationwide.