Our Team
Bevra Trout Hatchery was founded out of a deep love for the Assi Ganga Valley—its rivers, its trout, its people, and its culture. What began as love has grown into a lasting passion: to preserve and sustain the trout population of the Assi Ganga. There have been countless hands in the forming of Bevra Trout Hatchery’s progression. Though all deserve credit, four individuals have been at the core since the very beginning and still lead the mission today.
Peyton McDonald
Peyton McDonald of Houston Texas, born into a family of avid fly fishermen, took every opportunity to fish. During his freshman year of high school, Peyton traveled to India for the first time on a Christ Church School trip led by Aaron Alter. Peyton became infatuated with India and the Assi Ganga Valley in its entirety.
Though Peyton fell in love with the place, he left without catching one of the trip’s great promises—the Assi Ganga brown trout—whose population had been devastated by catastrophic floods just seven years earlier. After returning home, conversations between Peyton, Suman, Praveen, and Aaron sparked an ambitious idea: to build a restorative trout hatchery in the valley.
Since then, Peyton has traveled back to India five times, leading Bevra Trout Hatchery’s mission, fundraising efforts, and collaborating with the team toward the first restocking of brown trout in the Assi Ganga. Peyton is currently a junior Environmental History major at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee, where he is researching the transnational history of trout in the Himalayas while continuing to help guide the Bevra Trout Hatchery forward.
Suman Panwar
Born and raised in the Assi Ganga Valley, Suman Panwar’s spirit for the mountains and their rivers traces back to a childhood spent roaming the forests above his village. Curious, quick-minded, and quietly adventurous, he learned to read the landscape as easily as he learned English, skills that would later shape his life’s work along his home waters.
In 2008, Suman met team member Aaron Alter, a fly-fishing guide who had stumbled upon Agora while leading clients along the Assi Ganga River. For Suman that meeting quickly developed a fascination with fly-fishing and the brown trout native to his home waters. He began assisting Aaron with guiding trips, which eventually led him to assist in trips, educational programs, conservation initiatives in the valley.
After the devastating floods, Suman shared the same desire as Peyton, Praveen, and Aaron to restore the brown trout population. Taking a lead role in local operations, Suman was instrumental in designing and constructing the hatchery itself. Today, he continues to oversee on-the-ground work for Bevra Trout Hatchery while also guiding trekking and angling expeditions and managing his own lodge in the valley.
Praveen Rawat
Praveen, also known as “Panna,” has spent his entire life in the Assi Ganga Valley. From a young age, he stood out for his brightness, energy, and entrepreneurial spirit. He was always seeking to do more, learn more, and explore more. As a child, he helped his family run a small shop in Agora village, proudly managing the community’s only telephone line.
Praveen, Suman’s nephew, was later introduced to Aaron Alter and the possibilities that the brown trout of his valley could offer. His passion for blending local knowledge, natural beauty, and sustainable tourism has made him a pioneer in the Assi Ganga’s growing economy. This drive and creativity have been instrumental in shaping Bevra Trout Hatchery into what it is today. Alongside helping to found the hatchery, Praveen has built a successful lodge and trekking business that offers visitors a one-of-a-kind experience of the Assi Ganga’s landscapes and culture. He continues to develop innovative ways, both locally and digitally, to share the valley’s story with the world.
Praveen’s entrepreneurial vision and commitment to sustainability within the valley remain central to Bevra Trout Hatchery’s continued growth and future success.
Aaron Alter
Aaron Alter’s passion for Himalayan valleys and their finned residents began as a toddler. His great-grandparents first moved to the subcontinent in the early 1900s, setting the stage for a family legacy in northern India in particular that has shaped his father’s branch of the family tree. Part of the fourth generation of outdoorsmen to live in India from the Alter family, Aaron’s belief in a sustainable future for valleys like the Assi Ganga is rooted in familial knowledge and experience. While still in college, Aaron founded Baobab Educational Adventures and the Assi Ganga Conservation Project. Both the business and the conservation work were focused on the trout of the Assi Ganga river system.
Today, Aaron brings more than 15 years of experience as a guide on mahseer and trout waters in Uttarakhand. He has helped train local villagers as fly-fishing guides, promoted sustainable energy options, relocated trout to sensitive breeding sites, and much more. Aaron was first introduced to the Assi Ganga by legendary angler Vinay Badola, whose tagline “Wild Fish Forever” serves as the functional motto of Aaron’s engagement with northern India.
Aaron believes that education, conservation, livelihood diversification, and solution-based development are intricately intertwined. There is no better proof of that than the work he has done leading up to and in support of the Bevra Trout Hatchery.