This man plans to walk 12,000km from Malta to India in 18 months
Jaydip Lakhankiya wants to raise awareness of climate change and its consequences
As a child, Jaydip Lakhankiya dreamed of travelling the world in luxury. Now an adult, his travel plans look quite different – he is choosing tents over comfortable hotels, and year-long walking journeys over quick plane rides.
In January, the 25-year-old Indian national plans to embark on a 12,000-kilometre walk from Malta to India.
Apart from taking two ferries to get from Malta to mainland Italy, Lakhankiya will cross 20 countries entirely on foot, passing through each country’s capital on the way.
The entire journey is expected to take around one-and-a-half years, and Lakhankiya thinks he will burn through at least 20 pairs of shoes before reaching his final destination.
While he is still working out the exact route, he plans to stick to walkable areas and avoid highways as much as possible. The toughest stretch will probably be crossing the desert in Iran.
His sparse packing list includes four pairs of clothes, a jacket, tent, power bank, headlight, sleeping bag, reflectors and a phone.
Lakhankiya has committed to this trek for a deeper purpose: raising awareness about the devastating consequences of anthropogenic climate change.
A typical plane ride from Malta to India emits approximately 300,000 kg of carbon dioxide, he estimates.
This will not be Lakhankiya’s first time weathering the outdoors. Besides being a certified trekking instructor, kayaking instructor, lifeguard and paraglider, he also undertook a six-month solo backpacking journey through rural India, which he described as lifechanging.
“I travelled all over India by walking and hitchhiking for 182 days with almost no money.”
After this immersion in nature, Lakhankiya began working with environmental NGOs in India, but it wasn’t until he came to Malta to study for a diploma in hospitality that he began to seriously research climate change.
Lakhankiya feels deeply concerned about the potentially irreversible damage that climate change could have on our planet if drastic steps are not taken to slow the trajectory of the earth’s rising temperatures.
When reading about the silk road for one of his history of tourism modules, he felt inspired to retrace this route as a climate activist.
The silk road
Traditionally, the silk road connected humans for trade purposes. Today, Lakhankiya hopes this path will connect humans over their shared responsibility to address climate change.
On his climate walk, Lakhankiya plans to speak with people he meets along the way to raise awareness about environmental responsibility and about how the climate is changing in their communities.
In recent years, his home country of India has experienced a worrisome increase in climate disasters. Just last month, 2,000 villages were submerged by flooding in Punjab, causing deaths and mass displacement.
The problem is a lack of education, Lakhankiya said. Many of his friends blame such disasters on deities, but he wants to highlight that excessive human consumption is driving climate change.
“We need to conquer our self, our fears, desires, anger, hunger, selfishness. This is what needs to be conquered, not the forest or nature.”
“Fossil fuel is just a tool,” he added. Ultimately, humans can decide whether to use it responsibly. The world’s wealthiest people contribute about 20 times the average emissions per capita, whereas the bottom 50 per cent only contribute about five per cent of total emissions. Lakhankiya labelled the world’s wealthiest one per cent as terrorists, for inflicting so much damage on the rest of humanity. Rather than worshipping people like Elon Musk, he calls for a change in how humans define success.
“Material things don’t bring happiness,” he said, referring to the many spiritual and philosophical texts from which he draws inspiration.
On days when he feels challenged to find hope and motivation, Lakhankiya reminds himself it just takes one person to catalyse change.
“If you study any revolution in the world, it starts with one person.”
Lakhankiya’s journey may be followed through social media channels on @the.climate.walker.