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Mihir
Co-founder / Nature & Place-based Educator
Khoj Din Mandali
Cohort
3
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Mihir is a nature educator and learning designer who co-runs the initiative Khoj Din Mandali with Nidhi. Their work spans two age groups: teenagers/young adults and young children (ages 3–12). Mihir’s approach prioritises building an emotional, sensory connection with place over information-heavy climate messaging. Through long-term, project-based journeys, students explore their city, town, or village via walks, conversations with local practitioners (activists, writers, filmmakers), and creative expression such as films, theatre, books, and mapping. With younger children, Mihir uses arts-based pedagogy—storytelling, puppetry, theatre, movement, nature exploration and hands-on making—to develop sensitivity, curiosity, and comfort outdoors, keeping learning as screen-free and sensorial as possible.
Passion Project
Primary Focus Area
Place-based Environmental Education; Creative Arts for Nature Education; Youth Wellbeing & Nature Connectedness;
Special Expertise
Walk-based pedagogy; mapping as a learning tool; project-based learning; arts-based and sensory pedagogy for early years; screen-free experiential design; translation/local-language content creation
Khoj Din Mandali programmes: (1) Local Khoji – a 6-month programme for teenagers/young adults to build a unique relationship with their city/town/village through thematic walks (heritage, water, waste etc.), learning ecology + sociology (class, caste, gender, power, biodiversity, invasive species), and creating outputs like films, theatre, books, and “unique maps”. (2) Early Years Nature & Arts Programme (ages 3–12) – art- and sensory-led nature learning using theatre, movement, puppets, storytelling, nature walks, simple science exploration; recent projects include a Tree Project (ages 3–5) and upcoming Insect Project. Also does local language outreach: translating/creating nature education content in Gujarati/Hindi for magazines and publishing translations of books (with Nature Classroom; publication forthcoming). Current partnerships: a learning centre + a school in Ahmedabad; a learning centre in Vadodara.
Communities engaged
Pedagogical Style