Who We Are
Saving Ganesh is an Asian elephant conservation organization connecting wildlife conservation, community relationships, storytelling, culture and responsible travel.
For more than two decades, our work has grown through relationships with elephants and the people who live and work alongside them — including villagers, farmers, wildlife veterinarians, government rangers, scientists, filmmakers and spiritual communities.
Our primary work has been in Sri Lanka and India, where Asian elephants increasingly share their landscapes with growing human populations, agriculture and development.
We believe protecting elephants requires more than protecting animals alone. Long-term conservation also requires understanding and supporting the people who share their habitat.
Our goal is to help create a future in which people and elephants can continue to live alongside one another.
Our Approach
Our approach begins with relationships.
We work with villagers, farmers, wildlife veterinarians, government rangers, conservationists and spiritual leaders to better understand the realities of living alongside elephants.
By spending time in these communities, we learn not only about the challenges facing elephants, but also about the challenges facing the people who share their landscape.
We have worked alongside wildlife professionals, supported field projects, documented human-elephant conflict, provided equipment and resources, created conservation media, brought healthcare outreach into affected communities and helped connect international professionals and volunteers with people working on the ground.
We also believe culture matters. Our relationships with monks, nuns, temples and spiritual communities provide another way to encourage respect for elephants and the natural world.
Conservation works best when science, community and culture are all part of the conversation.
Our History
Our relationship with Asian elephants began in Sri Lanka in 1998, when founder Philip Price worked as a film assistant on the documentary Elephants of Paradise, which documented elephant translocation and wildlife management.
That experience began a long relationship with Sri Lanka, its people and its elephants, and demonstrated something that continues to guide Saving Ganesh today: storytelling can influence how people understand and respond to wildlife conservation.
Over the years, those relationships expanded into conservation filmmaking, human-elephant conflict projects, work with veterinarians and rangers, habitat and development issues, community outreach, responsible conservation travel and international advocacy.
SavingGanesh.org grew from those experiences as a way to connect people, resources, media and conservation projects around the future of Asian elephants.
Why Saving Ganesh
Ganesh is a deity—not the name of a particular elephant—and our choice of the name is intentional.
Throughout much of Asia, elephants have a profound spiritual and cultural significance. Ganesh represents wisdom, protection and the removal of obstacles.
Saving Ganesh reflects our belief that conservation can benefit from both science and cultural understanding. Elephants are biological beings that require habitat and protection, but they also occupy a remarkable place in human history and imagination.
We believe both perspectives matter.
OUR WORK OVER THE YEARS
Saving Ganesh has participated in a wide range of conservation, welfare, research, advocacy and education projects involving Asian elephants.
Our work has included:
Human-elephant conflict and coexistence
Elephant habitat and wildlife corridors
Conservation filmmaking
Support for wildlife veterinarians and government rangers
Garbage-dump elephants and related health concerns
Captive elephant welfare
Elephant tourism and no-riding advocacy
Elephant deterrence and conflict-prevention tools
Development projects affecting elephant habitat
Community and humanitarian outreach
Conservation education
We have documented issues surrounding major development projects including the Moragahakanda Dam and development near Hambantota, worked on elephant-deterrence concepts including the Wind Torch and sound-based deterrence, supplied equipment to wildlife professionals, and produced films highlighting the work of veterinarians and rangers responding to human-elephant conflict.
Our role is not always to be the organization doing everything ourselves. Often our greatest value is connecting people, documenting what is happening, supporting people already doing the work and helping important conservation stories reach a wider audience.
OUR COMMUNITY ROOTS
Saving Ganesh has deep roots in yoga, art, music, healing and intentional communities.
Over the years, our team has participated in gatherings including Bhakti, Hanuman, SoulPlay, Burning Man and other festivals and communities centered around creativity, spirituality, service and connection.
Many of the volunteers, filmmakers, artists, professionals and supporters who have become part of Saving Ganesh first encountered us through these communities.
This background has shaped the way we approach conservation. We believe people protect what they develop a relationship with, and that art, music, spirituality and storytelling can help create that relationship in ways that science alone sometimes cannot.
Our Actions:
Outreach
Ganesh Project
SavingGanesh.org is rooted in America's yoga, art, and healing communities. Our team draws inspiration from connections with Hanuman, Bhakti, SoulPlay, and other festivals. We are especially involved in Burning Man, where we host a well-known camp for yogis, musicians, artists, and healers. We organize events and have equipment for festivals, including trucks and trailers. Our crew can set up tents, shade structures, sound systems, and lighting. Many of our volunteers and team members found us through our outreach at these events.
SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITH ELEPHANTS
SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITH ELEPHANTS
Human-elephant conflict affects people as well as wildlife.
Farmers living in elephant-range areas may spend nights guarding their crops, lose significant portions of their harvest and live with the ongoing stress of elephants entering farms and villages.
We believe asking communities to protect elephants also means listening to and supporting the people who bear the costs of living alongside them.
Our humanitarian work has brought healthcare volunteers and other forms of outreach into communities affected by human-elephant conflict. These visits also create opportunities to listen to villagers, better understand their challenges and discuss possible coexistence solutions.
We sometimes connect these programs with local temples, monks, nuns and community gatherings, reflecting the important cultural and spiritual relationship between people and elephants.
Helping elephants and helping communities do not have to be opposing goals. We believe successful conservation requires both.
BUTTON: HUMANITARIAN & COMMUNITY PROJECTS
CONSERVATION, CULTURE & SPIRITUALITY
Our roots in yoga and spiritual communities influence the way we think about conservation.
Many traditional cultures understand that people are part of the natural world rather than separate from it. That perspective is particularly meaningful in Asia, where elephants have occupied an extraordinary place in religion, culture and human imagination for thousands of years.
Saving Ganesh respects both scientific and cultural approaches to conservation. We believe each can help inspire people to care more deeply about elephants, their habitat and the communities that live beside them.
CONSERVATION THROUGH FILM
Storytelling has been part of Saving Ganesh from the beginning.
For more than two decades, we have worked with filmmakers, photographers, writers, scientists, veterinarians, wildlife biologists, naturalists, students and conservation professionals to document the challenges facing Asian elephants and the people who live alongside them.
Our network helps provide filmmakers and journalists with field context, local relationships, logistical support and access to people who understand the issues on the ground.
Over the years, we have produced more than 100 videoblogs, short documentaries and other conservation media addressing subjects such as human-elephant conflict, habitat loss, wildlife management, captive elephant welfare, veterinary work and development affecting elephant habitat.
Our goal is not simply to create dramatic images of elephants. We want to tell the complete story — including the people, communities and difficult choices involved in conservation.
Our videos can be found through ElephantTV and our other media channels.
The Meaning of
“Saving Ganesh”
Ganesh is a deity, not the name of a particular elephant. Our choice of the name is intentional.
Ganesh is one of the most recognizable sacred figures associated with the elephant and is widely revered as a symbol of wisdom, protection and the removal of obstacles.
The name Saving Ganesh reflects our belief that elephant conservation is not purely a biological issue.
Throughout Asia, elephants exist at the intersection of ecology, religion, culture, tradition and modern development. They are remarkable animals, but they are also deeply embedded in the histories and spiritual traditions of the people who share their range.
By combining conservation science with cultural respect, we hope to encourage a deeper relationship between people and elephants — one based on coexistence, reverence and responsibility.
In that sense, Saving Ganesh really is about saving elephants, while also recognizing the extraordinary place they occupy in our shared cultural heritage.
GET INVOLVED
Whether you are a wildlife professional, veterinarian, filmmaker, student, conservation advocate, donor or thoughtful traveler, there are many ways to become part of the Saving Ganesh community.