Learning from the field is at the core of the approach that Keystone Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Western Ghats, India has been engaged in since its inception in 1993. As a group for eco-development initiatives, we engage with children and the youth from local to global, and formal and non-formal institutions. Through this report, we used the opportunity to reflect on our experiments with field learning and alternative pedagogies that are currently ongoing through the Nilgiri Field Learning Centre (a collaboration between Keystone Foundation and Cornell University) and the Climate Smart School initiative, which has been implemented in 15 schools (both private and government run). We seek to: a) explore the knowledge produced and the pedagogical approaches that have been enabled; b) examine the impact of field learning in terms of capacity; and c) reflect on our efforts at mainstreaming these pedagogies through government schools. Additionally, we collaborated with alumni from the field learning programmes to conduct a survey to assess the status of education among children belonging to indigenous communities in the Nilgiris.