Planting native trees in the Western Ghats as an act of practice – and as a long commitment to the forests that made yoga possible.
The Western Ghats are the source of the Kaveri, Krishna, Godavari, and Mahanadi rivers – rivers that feed hundreds of millions of people. They exist because of forests. When the forests thin, the rivers thin. When the forests disappear, the rivers follow.
Over the last century, much of the Western Ghats has been cleared for plantations, roads, and settlements. What remains is fragmented – patches of forest separated by land that has lost its capacity to hold water and support life.
The Tree Project plants native trees in and around Vana Farm as a small, sustained response to this larger loss. Not as a grand gesture. As a practice – the same kind of long, unglamorous, necessary work that serious yoga requires.
The Tree Project plants only species native to the Western Ghats. Not eucalyptus. Not acacia. Not the fast-growing monocultures that dominate commercial forestry and strip the soil of its native ecology.
Saplings are grown from local seeds – seeds collected within the Kambam Valley and surrounding forests. This matters because local genotypes carry thousands of years of adaptation to this specific soil, altitude, and rainfall pattern. A tree grown from local seed is not just the same species – it is the same community.
The scale is deliberately small. We plant what we can plant well – with attention to soil preparation, species selection, and care through the first monsoon. This project grows with the support of previous students and participants who return to plant.
Kaveri, Krishna, Godavari, Mahanadi – four of India’s great rivers begin in the Western Ghats. Their flow depends on forest cover above.
One of the world’s eight biodiversity hotspots. Thousands of plant species, hundreds of birds, animals found nowhere else on earth.
Intact forests catch, slow, and release monsoon rainfall. Without forest cover, rains become floods and droughts – not harvests.
Planting sessions are woven into longer residential retreats. Participants plant directly – in the soil, with their hands. It is part of the programme.
Support the planting of a sapling from a distance. Donations cover soil preparation, saplings, and care through the critical first year.
If you work in ecology, native forestry, seed banking, or related fields, your knowledge is welcome. Write to us.
Know an organization doing related work? We are open to partnerships and connections that serve the larger project of Western Ghats restoration.
Vana Farm, Kambam Valley
Melagudalur, Tamilnadu – 625516. India