ASIA

Akhil Bakshi

Leads Expeditions to Promote Peace and Development

“Borders may divide us, but land connects us”

Akhil Bakshi worked for the Indian government initiating youth programs, and has set up two non-government organizations in rural India to provide youth leadership and to assist small and marginal farmers and landless laborers in increasing their productivity and incomes.

Bakshi is also an explorer, filmmaker and author who leads international jeep expeditions to promote peace and development.

The Central Asia Expedition in 1994 crossed on the old Silk Road across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Chinese Turkestan and Tibet. The Azad Hind Expedition (1996) drove from Singapore to Delhi via Malaysia and Myanmar in the footsteps of the Indian National Army. Expedition Hands Across the Borders (1999/2000) through the interiors of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India. The Gondwanaland expedition is a friendship mission to promote people-to-people contact with the countries of West Asia and Africa. The expedition will go from the tip of India to the tip of Africa, across 18 countries over a five-month period.

Bakshi is undaunted by the strife and tension prevalent today in many areas the expedition traverses. In the true spirit of an adventurer he finds these annoyances “fully gratifying and heartwarming.”