The involvement of local communities in protecting and conserving forests has become a priority concern with aid agencies, governmental departments, NGO's and others concerned with biodiversity conservation, to the extent that participatory forest conservation has become a buzzword in conservation circles. This article documents the fourteen-year process of organising a village community in efforts to conserve rare shola forest located in Vattakanal, a village near the tourist town of Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu's Western Ghats.