Jaydip Lakhankiya was studying hotel management when a discussion on sustainable tourism intrigued him and led him down a rabbit hole of research on climate change.
His thirst for knowledge quickly turned into a yearning for activism and sowed the seed of an idea to become the first person to walk from Malta to India.
I meet Jaydip in a quiet coffee shop where he sets out to explain the “mad idea” of travelling 12,000km to the other side of the world on foot to raise awareness on climate change.
“My research on climate change immediately showed me what reality was at stake for millions of people,” Jaydip says. “It hit me like a bus and it was difficult to focus on hotel management after that.”
Jaydip tells me that one particular aspect of climate change he cannot shake off is the injustice of it. “The world’s poorest people are at risk because of the actions of the richest polluters,” he says.
Despite the clear warning signs from scientists, who have been speaking about climate change for decades, Jaydip believes there still isn’t enough awareness.
To do his part in the fight to change the earth’s course, Jaydip felt the need to come up with something bold. He set his sights on a journey so gruelling it makes bracing rush-hour traffic an easy task.
He tells me that walking long distances has always been close to his heart. When he used to live in India, Jaydip was a certified trekking instructor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he says that he started a solo backpacking journey to see the real rural India by hitchhiking for 182 days. But what he plans to do now is very different.
Jaydip plans to walk 12,000km and cross 20 borders, while contributing no emissions to get to India. The only exception is the use of two ferries to leave Malta and Sicily. Apart from that, he will be on his two feet for the next two years.
The Climate Walker, as he is called, tells me he is very much inspired by people who managed to bring about big change despite their isolation. He mentions Mahatma Gandhi as a major source of inspiration, especially given that Gandhi used to live a few kilometres away from where Jaydip grew up.
“I speak for the polar bear with no ice. I speak for the farmer watching his crops fail and for the mother carrying water across cracked land. For the child coughing from smoke-filled air,” he says.
But before the journey begins, Jaydip faces another uphill battle to secure the funds necessary for such an ambitious trip. Specifically, he needs to save up for visas needed to cross the 20 borders during the trip.
His biggest hurdle is the Pakistani border in light of the temsions between his homeland and Pakistan. Jaydip cannot enter Pakistan, which means that he would have to extend his journey in order to travel through China before making it into India.
The rest of the funds he needs to cover the basic necessities such as insurance, accommodation, food, and equipment.
Luckily for him, he has found support from Maltese NGOs with whom he already has a working relationship. Jaydip tells me that he takes part in clean-up events and spent the last day of 2025 walking across a number of localities in Malta while picking up trash.
Looking ahead, Jaydip remains determined to achieve the bold feat he has set himself. “It is really for humanity’s sake,” he tells me, urging the public to support his fundraising campaign.