Ishita Khanna

Khanna was born and brought up in Dehradun. She holds a Master's degree in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and worked as a young social work professional with the Government of Himachal Pradesh.

In 2000 Khanna read an article about sea buckthorn, a berry that grows at high altitude in Spiti, and travelled to the valley by motorcycle to find out why its economic and ecological potential had not been used to improve local livelihoods. She left her government job and in 2002, with a group of friends, founded the NGO MUSE to work on sea buckthorn processing in Spiti.

Building on that work, MUSE looked for further livelihood streams tied to conservation of nature and cultural heritage, and tourism was an obvious candidate. Ecosphere was founded in 2006 as a combination of three organisations — MUSE, the Spiti Trans-Himalayan Action Group and the Spiti Sea Buckthorn Society — to make tourism benefit local communities, travellers and the environment. Its work spans responsible travel, sea buckthorn products, local handicrafts and renewable energy, including solar installations and greenhouses, and it operates Sol Café, Taste of Spiti, Osel Rooms and the Sol Eco-Hotel at Kaza. Khanna is founder and director.

Khanna is an Ashoka Fellow and was named among CNN-IBN's Real Heroes. Ecosphere's work has been recognised with the Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Award (2008), the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy and the Sierra Club's Green Energy and Green Livelihoods Achievement Award (both 2009), and a Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award (2010). In 2024 she won the gold award in the sustainability champion category at the Indian Responsible Tourism Awards.[2][3][4][5]