During the production of Gods in Shackles film, Sangita was deeply saddened by the plight of Kerala’s festival elephants. She realized that there was a significant lack of awareness regarding the plight of captive elephants, and used Gods in Shackles documentary as an educational tool to empower the people of India, particularly students, who hold the key to the future.

 

She soon realized that it was also necessary to implement tangible solutions to protect the endangered Asian elephants that were elevated to the status of India's Heritage Animal in 2010. This inspired her to create Voices for Asian Elephants  (VFAE) and offer resources to the people of India, to stop capturing and exploiting elephants, and protect their habitat.

 

Sangita’s deep bond with elephants began when she was around three years old. Her grandparents took her to their family temple in a little village near the District of Palakkad in Kerala, southern India, where she was born and raised. By the age of four her family moved to Mumbai, where she did her schooling and university, but she missed interacting with her soul animals.

 

After her undergrad degree in B. Sc., Sangita taught in a primary school in Mumbai for a while, followed by a stint as a secondary school teacher in Nairobi, Kenya. She eventually moved to Toronto, Canada, where she went back to school and pursued broadcast journalism, aspiring to educate the masses about nature and wildlife.