In his talk, Mr Arun Shenoy shares how a single act of saving a forest from encroachers transformed into a lifelong commitment to forest conservation. He narrates the incident when he was a small part of the team that saved large trees on government land right next to their basecamp from being cut. He believes that this is one of the greatest accomplishments of his life, a story that he can tell till the day he dies. Following the incident, he started to look for an answer to the question burning in his mind, namely how much forest we still have remaining, and the answer troubled him greatly. To get these points across to large numbers his team created what is called the Broken Forest Tour at the Kanthavara Forest Basecamp. Visitors, mainly students, educationists and families sit on the same fallen tree trunks, and ponder over these findings. Many are deeply moved by the sight of the broken forest and have gone on to spread the word. His words highlight both the urgency of preservation of forests and the responsibility of future generations Mr Arun Shenoy is an environmental educator and conservation activist. He established “Kanthavara”, a forest base camp and training centre and a hub for conservation and education, following his encounter with a tree-poaching incident in the forested area nearby. Here, he conducts forest walk programmes, study tours, sessions on the ‘Broken Forest’ segment, Seed ball making and bamboo in construction and design study. Around fifty such camps have been held in the past two years. Through the activities at Kanthavara, he has effectively demonstrated the impact of unchecked human intervention on forest ecosystems, sensitised the public on the after-effects of forest encroachment, the possible threats to wildlife caused by human activities, and methods to prevent forest fires and protect forest borders. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx