Our International Team

Whilst living in India for several years during the 1990s Amanda had the opportunity to travel widely on the sub-continent witnessing the growing conflicts between animals and people in and around India's tiger reserves. Although a solicitor by profession she developed a wide knowledge of India's parks and wildlife problems through her meetings with park staff and leading conservationists. On her return to the UK she was asked to become a trustee of the already well established charity Global Tiger Patrol. She is now Chair of the Trustees, and the charity enjoys free office space in her legal practice in Essex. Since she returned to live in England Amanda has been able to visit India at least once or twice a year, at her own expense, and keeps in close touch with what is happening there, from changes in park staff and wildlife seizures to ongoing projects.

Mary-Anne Denison-Pender has spent 20 years in the travel industry, both working for and managing tour operating companies like Cox and Kings and Western & Oriental.

She now runs her own business, MAhout, which represents India’s finest small hotels and one of Australia’s most innovative ground handling companies. Considered one of the country’s leading experts on Indian travel, her knowledge of the subcontinent is second to none.

She is a Founder member of the campaign

Abhishek qualified with an MSc degree in Conservation & Tourism from the Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, UK. He was actively helping TOFT for 2 years in the UK where his MSc dissertation research focused on local community benefits from UK travel operators and conservation organisations at Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (Research sponsors: WCS - India IPSG & University of Kent).

He started his conservation career with Kids for Tigers (A Sanctuary Tiger program) Coordinator - Delhi (India's largest schools awareness program on tiger conservation). While in the UK, Abhishek worked with the Northumberland Wildlife Trust where he participated on protected area & habitat management research. His job takes him frequently to 6 national parks in India and works with fellow TOFT Representatives on wildlife conservation issues.

Recently TOFT & Abhishek Behl won the ABN-AMRO Sanctuary Wildlife Awards 2007 for category ‘Wind under the Wings’. Abhishek strongly believes when communities benefit economically, they get incentives to protect wildlife, by doing so it sustains the growth of wildlife tourism and promotes responsible travel.

Gail McGuffie is a freelance Public Relations Consultant who has been marketing and fundraising for Global Tiger Patrol since the mid 1990s. Not afraid to don the tiger suit, she has abseiled and even driven fire engines and double-decker buses in aid of wild tigers. She is also co-founder of GTP’s partnership in 21st Century Tiger.

With a background in research and wildlife conservation in Dudhwa with Billy Arjan Singh and in Chitwan National Park - Nepal with Dr Chuck McDougal for 10 years , Rahul brings lots of experience to the campaign in conservation and wildlife. For the past 17 years he has been involved with the Travel business with companies such as Steppes East, Cox & Kings and Kuoni. He now has his own rep company.

In 1997 he set up Discovery Initiatives, an award winning nature tour operator business that included nature travel within the Indian Sub continent. His passion for wildlife and conservation and his belief that nature tourism is one of the key ‘tools’ in a conservationist’s toolbox, meant he wanted to add his experiences to help India save its wildlife and wilderness, through better ecotourism practices. His experiences are derived from his present job and his upbringing in Southern Africa, amongst its conservationists and ecotour operators who have pioneered new initiatives to save wildlife and wilderness.

Today his job takes him across the globe, visiting wildernesses areas across the seven continents, designing and developing new tours and safaris, developing partnerships with conservation agencies and wildlife experts the world over, and running the TOFT campaign from his home office in the late evenings!!

Julian is an experienced speaker and lecturer on travel, wildlife and conservation and has been interviewed and done recordings both for BBC radio and TV and lectures and presentations in the UK and across the world, from Brazil to South Africa.

Director and owner of Bagh Van Lodge, Pench National Park, and today is employed by India Explorations in the UK.

In his former life he was a former Chief Naturalist at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal, and former member of the Indian Board of Wildlife. He has a house near Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve where he has served as honorary wildlife warden, undertaken a bird survey, published a guide to the Reserve and acted as scientific advisor on television films about tigers.

Mehra Dalton was born and educated in Bombay India. She went on to do her higher education in the United Kingdom. Having started a family at an early age Mehra joined the family business, Greaves Travel in 1984. Over the years Mehra moved through the company and was appointed Managing Director in 1992. Since this time Mehra Dalton has steered the company to international acclaim, branching out into the luxury bespoke holiday market to India as well as expanding the existing consolidation side. Mehra has a personal interest in sustainable tourism and was a founder trustee of the charity Jaisalmer in Jeopardy, and is now the Chairman.

Jane Behrend, is TOFT's representation in the USA. Her own representation company, Emerging Destinations, draws on a 24-year career in Public Relations, advertising, travel marketing and consulting. A relative newcomer to the Indian tourism market, Jane has nevertheless years of experience promoting African wildlife, with an emphasis on responsible tourism and mountain gorillas. She has seen the extraordinary turnaround in the welfare of the endangered Mountain Gorilla, today numbering 760, since the advent of Gorilla tourism, helping to secure their future, their security and the revenue generation for conserving National parks, both in the Virunga Mountains, but also elsewhere across Uganda and Rwanda.