Ditching her dreams of trekking in the Himalayas, 23-year-old Vidhi Bubna opted for “something safer” with deep-sea diving. She says it’s an adventure activity that her protective parents had no preconceived notions about. “Little did they know that I went diving with rare sharks, stingrays, manta rays, moray eels, whale sharks and numerous other marine life species. I got into diving initially, just to try it out, but I felt at home in the ocean. Amidst that silence, I started finding friends in the sharks and rays. I was willing to give so much to protect them all,” says Mumbai-based Bubna, who is a freelance writer and the author of A Woke Guide To Life.

After her first diving experience in the Andamans, she realised that she had experienced a world that most people hadn’t accessed because of lack of funding. Besides, much to her dismay, she learnt that corals were getting bleached. It was the impetus she needed to launch Coral Warriors. Since early 2021, the team has been hosting online workshops to spread awareness about the oceanic environment, specifically corals. They have also been raising funds to sponsor Indian citizens, passionate about climate change, to learn Level 1 - Open Water diving. The special grant of R70,000 is India’s first-ever grant for scuba diving.