Utsow Pradhan grew up in the verdant hills of Kurseong, a small town nestled in the Eastern Himalayan belt of Darjeeling. His significant early childhood memories include spending a lot of time in the lap of Mother Nature. He spent the next couple of decades studying and working in various cities around India. His last stint in the corporate world was as the National Product head for Next Education India Pt.Ltd. an education-technology startup.
Utsow’s love for the mountains kept drawing him towards mountaineering and trekking in the Himalayas. During one of those backpacking sojourns is when he discovered the philosophy of Permaculture in one of the remote farms in Northern Himalayas. Getting introduced to Permaculture helped him connect the dots between regenerative living, climate action, community development, human ingenuity and most importantly living in harmony with Mother Nature. He completed his Permaculture Design Certification course under the tutelage of Rico Zook and founded TIEEDI(Take it Easy, Easy Does it) Forest Garden, a sustainable regenerative tourism initiative in 2016.
TIEEDI today is at the forefront of climate action in the hills of Darieeling through its projects related to Zero Waste, Responsible Tourism and Experiential Environment Education. TIEEDI is on a mission to teach and popularize a sustainable lifestyle by tackling waste at source. It also operates as an ecological forest training centre that focuses on permaculture, regenerative tourism, natural farming and sustainable land and building design consultation. It is also a registered NGO that takes up experiential environmental education and holistic waste management projects in the hills. It highlights community-led plastic reduction and awareness solutions.
In 2017, ‘Save 8 Mile Khola, a community led initiative to save the Khola river was started resulting in three hamlets becoming Zero Waste villages. TIEEDI has taught the community about different kinds of waste, how to segregate and compost.
For the last 5 years, TIEEDI has also been working with 7 schools of Kurseong and Darjeeling on an experiential environmental education to teach students composting, identify local species and grow their own food.
In 8 years, community-led effort has converted 1.5 acre dumping ground into a permaculture forest garden. Utsow has been recognised as a Local Environment Champion, by Scavengers Darjeeling in 2019 and Young Indians, Siliguri in 2022.