As we stroll through the main gate of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, we’re greeted by a gentle rustling of leaves around us. It’s not the morning breeze, it’s the park’s rhesus monkeys — already up and swinging before the clock strikes 7 am. It seems yoga instructor Dipali Rege, who is leading the park’s new forest yoga sessions inside, has travelled the same route. “The mind is like a monkey,” she smiles as she begins the hour-long session. “If you can’t tame it, practising yoga is pointless.”

We’re in the company of a healthy mix of senior citizens, young runners, and casual morning walkers who have all settled into their own cosy spots at the park’s amphitheatre nestled near the Nature Interpretation Centre. We later learn from nature interpretation officer Shubham Hadkar that the mini-amphitheatre had been non-functional for a year. “We wanted to slowly bring it back into operation, and so we decided to start with these weekly sessions with Rege,” he tells us.