The Road Did Not Start in Malta
Jaydip Lakhankiya is a farmer's son from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, whose 182-day India journey, outdoor fieldwork, and climate study in Malta led to a public 12,000 km walk back to India.
The biography behind the mission
The Climate Walker came out of farming life, long travel through India, practical outdoor training, Malta climate study, and a decision to carry the climate conversation on foot.
Bhavnagar and farming life
Jaydip grew up in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, as a farmer's son. That matters because climate change first appears there as crop stress, harder heat, water pressure, and risk to a family's income, not as a distant policy debate.
Leaving a conventional track
He first pursued chartered accountancy, then left that path behind. Travel, fieldwork, and direct contact with people made more sense to him than a career built far from the realities he cared about.
182 days across India
In 2021, during the pandemic years, he crossed India by walking and hitchhiking for 182 days with almost no money. The journey taught him more than tourism ever could: how people live, what rural pressure looks like, and how far public rhetoric can sit from everyday struggle.
Outdoor training that made the road possible
Before launching The Climate Walker, Jaydip trained and worked as a trekking instructor and outdoor guide, added kayaking instruction, and kept building the endurance, navigation, group leadership, and risk awareness needed for long-distance field work.
Malta sharpened the climate mission
Jaydip came to Malta for postgraduate study in hospitality and tourism in 2024 and 2025. Climate learning, sustainable tourism research, and youth environmental participation there turned a personal concern into a public mission.
From Malta cleanups to Valletta departure
Before leaving, he completed a five-day walk through Malta's localities with cleanups as a tribute to the island. Public coverage later referenced roughly 800 kg of waste collected in Malta cleanups. On 21 February 2026, he left Valletta to begin the roughly 12,000 km route toward India.
What the walk is meant to build
The destination is not only New Delhi. Jaydip wants the road to lead into long-term cleanup, environmental education, school visits, documentary work, and a future organization in India built from what the walk proves in public.
The story is on the road now