Parvat Say is a play on words. In Darjeeling, where we’re based out of, mountains are referred to as ‘Parvat.’ These dispatches are hence “From the Mountains.” They’re also a voice, putting to words the thoughts and ideas that are emanating from the mountains of Darjeeling, hence “the Mountains speak.”
This edition of Parvat Say is all about Alt Futures 2025— South Asia’s leading Carbon Removal Summit!
Some milestones before we get to the summit highlights, we’re Asia’s first ERW company to be validated. This is the most critical step in carbon delivery. Project validation involved careful review— from literature and protocols to labs and farmlands, from basalt deployment dosages to soil characteristics. Next up: Deliveries!
During Alt Futures 2025, we brought the Bengal Renaissance Project out of stealth. Our first biochar plant is called Nobojagoron (Bengali for Revival) and the first pyrolysis machine is named the Begum Reactor— after the pioneering Bengali writer Begum Rokeya; more on her in Issue 1 of Alter Magazine coming up soon.
We’ve already sold the next 3 years of inventory. A symbol of just how fast Carbon Markets are scaling.
We also inaugurated the expanded Darjeeling-Climate Action Labs (D-CAL). Built in just four months and now spread across 15,000 sq ft at Kamala Tea Estate (Bagdogra), D-CAL is our home base for field science. By 2026, it will handle 100,000 samples a year and support everything from carbon removal to advanced earth sciences.
Alt Futures hosted 650+ people in Bengaluru. We stitched together VCs, policy makers, buyers, operators, scientists, and founders into panels and discussion to shape the actions from the Global South.
We are making a new design charter for deep-tech, applied sciences, & an Indian Abundance agenda.
Explore how ERW creates Corals From Clouds for yourself here!
From spaces that sparked action to partners who make it real: it was a pleasure to host Bharati Balakrishnan, Country Head at Shopify—our very first customer through Frontier. Support from early buyers like Shopify has helped us scale the Darjeeling Revival Project from idea to impact.
“I guarantee you- in 3 years time, India will become the largest supplier of durable Carbon Credits in the world.” - Antti Vihavainen, Co-Founder, Puro.earth.
Through workshops led by the likes of Pixxel Space, BeZero Carbon, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Puro Earth, and panel discussions with the leading experts, Alt Futures brought the world to India. To showcase the opportunity for CO2 removal that lies in the subcontinent.
Our North Star: Alt Carbon is building Planetary Intelligence; using carbon markets and through Carbon Removal we are developing soil, river, crop, and weather intelligence — to undo planetary damages.
We brought 50 of the world’s leading scientists, technologists, and carbon removal buyers on the foothills of the Himalayas.
Also captured on this thread. 🧵
The Darjeeling Leg started with a sunset hike through Selim Hill Tea Estate’s famed Gitanjali section— an ode to Rabindranath Tagore, a friend and frequent visitor to the estate. A voyage through tea bushes stolen from China, spiders and cobwebs surviving in this organic oasis, & tea flowers hosting a universe of life.
From there we moved under the full moon, harvest began with a solemn puja to Shiva—Chandrashekhara, the moon-bearer—a timeless ritual that anchors Selim Hill.
“Dui Path, Ek Suiro” (two leaves and a bud): found by lantern light and plucked with a flick of the wrist— every step brings together decades of practice and secrets, held sacredly at Selim Hill tea estate.
Returning back to the Second Chance House, our keynote speaker, Dr. Gautam Menon (Professor of Physics & Biology, Ashoka University) took us on a tour-de-horizon on the history of Indian Science, imagining what the future of science led nation-building looks like.
Alongside Professor Menon’s fireside chat, we also hosted our partners the Japanese shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines & Mitsubishi Corporation to discuss how we can scale the Japan-India Climate Corridor— a key development for climate action.
Day 2 of the Darjeeling leg began at Ajeeb Dastaan House, inside the Kamala Tea Estate.
A tea tasting for Carbon Credits’ buyers from across the world. Here to witness the ajeeb dastaan of Darjeeling— a land at once both magical and in crisis.
Followed by a field trip to witness Enhanced Rock Weathering in action, inside the tea estates of Darjeeling. A saga of advanced geochemistry, oceanography, and agronomy.
For more check out this thread. 🧵
We’ve launched a new page that explains Enhanced Rock Weathering—how common rocks help pull CO₂ from the air and lock it away (our “corals from clouds” story). Explore here.
Credits: Illustrations by Chinmay Pathak and staging by Manish Basargekar.
We are also launching a monthly journal of ideas, Alter Magazine. Each story shifts how our readers see the world. The future is unfolding in the Sub-continent, and we’re documenting how it’s being imagined and brought to life.
Bringing to you alternative imaginations of the future— anchored by the lives of individuals whose dreams have colonised their reality. Progress is intimately tied with culture.
Join us for the launch party on the 22nd of November in Bengaluru! Register now.
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard Hamming: Hamming distills his famed graduate lectures into a compact guide to “learning to learn”: how to choose important problems, cultivate breadth without losing depth, and communicate ideas so they actually change a field. He threads big-picture lessons through case studies from the digital revolution and computing/AI to teach a style of thinking that compounds over a career.
Designing for the unknown. A conversation with futures designer Nick Foster (ex-Google X) on escaping four ruts of futures thinking—could/should/might/don’t. He skewers “numeric fiction,” KPI tunnel vision, and fetishized prediction, arguing for ethics, narrative, and the “future mundane”: prototyping everyday systems for technologies that don’t exist yet. A crisp primer for climate builders on what to pursue, what to pause, and what to never ship. Listen to the full podcast here.
Rolex — Perpetual Planet
Launched in 2019, Perpetual Planet backs scientists, explorers, and communities to protect oceans, wild places, and biodiversity. The newest chapter, Perpetual Planet Ocean Expeditions (with National Geographic), is sending 20 Explorers across all five ocean basins to map change and co-create solutions with coastal communities.
Why it matters (through Dr. Sylvia Earle’s lens)
In a short film with Dr. Sylvia Earle, the ocean is both warning and waypoint—threats mount, but the path is clear: science + storytelling + local stewardship. Her Mission Blue network spans 160+ Hope Spots, pushing protection from ~3% toward 30% by 2030—proof that protecting the blue heart brings abundance back.
Our coral build
Carrying that spirit from sea level to the hills, we built a coral micro-reef for Alt Futures—a small, modular piece meant to teach, to spark conversation, and to depict what we are saving through our works.
That’s a wrap from me. ✌️
Want to talk about Planetary Intelligence, hit me up at sparsh@alt-carbon.com
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