We are a lean team!

Our current team is  8 adults and three kids. Some of us are engaged in revenue-generating activities outside Sarang. Whatever spare time left is utilised for construction.

Naturally, the progress is very slow.   Skilled people in mud, bamboo and wood is expensive and we don’t get experts from local anymore.  Even if we get people from outside, there is no place for them to stay. So until we reach a position where we have space for ourselves and people from outside, things will move very slow. We can only hope you to understand the situation.

 

Currently, there is nothing to ‘see‘.

After learning about Sarang from media or friends, many want to visit the campus. What the media usually don’t convey is that Sarang had to shut down the activities on the hilltop due to financial crunch 20 years ago and the team has been trying to pay off all the debts and revive the campus from scratch. All the infrastructure made of natural material went back to nature leaving the second generation an almost clean canvas to restart. Today the second generation is working on getting the infrastructure back up with bamboo, wood and mud.

There is no school, no significant activities and not even enough infrastructure here. For the last few years, we have been discouraging visitors to avoid their disappointment after seeing Sarang in this unfinished condition. Honestly, we don’t think we are ready for visitors yet.  However, the number of requests we get compel us to open the campus for those who are too keen to visit. There is no facilities for your stay here now. Please plan accordingly.

The following are the types of visitors based on the requests we get. If you don’t fit into any of these slots, do let us know.

Important
Please go through the following and fill the form at the end of the page.  Make plans only after you hear from us.  There is a visitors’ fee that you have to pay in advance.  We shall communicate the payment details along with the dates.  

 

Day visit. Forest walk and presentation – by senior students of Sarang

You will be given a presentation on Sarang’s journey so far. There are rare pictures of the campus when it was barren and bare. After the presentation, you will be taken for a walk through the Sarang campus witnessing the transformation that happened in the past. Sarang’s experiments in watershed management, zero-carbon water percolation methods, soil regeneration techniques etc will be explained. At the end of the tour, there will be a half hour question and answer session with the senior students.

Dates: Since we have our own engagements, we have limited the days of visits to selected weekends in a month. Please fill in the form below and we will let you know possible dates. Please plan only after hearing from us. 

The fee will be INR 300 per person up to three people. If there are more than three, we will consider it a group and the fee will be INR 200 per person.

Languages: Malayalam, English, Broken Tamil (We will improve as we progress)

 

Consultation with Gopalakrishnan and Vijayalekshmi, the founders of Sarang

If your interest is more than simply visiting the campus, this might be what you want. You want to get help with an educational project, parenting, training teachers or might even want to replicate Sarang’s conservation or educational experiments elsewhere. Talk to the founders who have plenty of field experience. They will share you their story and spend half a day with you where you can interact with them freely and get inspired.

Dates: Mutually convenient date decided over email / phone communication.

The fee for the consultation is INR 2000 for individuals or a group of 4. If you are more than 4 up to 10 the fee will be INR 5000. We don’t entertain groups bigger than this for consultation since we feel it is not useful or effective.

Languages: Malayalam, English

 

Academic visit. Sarang as a subject of study, project, thesis etc.

If you are a student and have selected Sarang as your study subject or project, here is how we entertain you:

You send us the summery of your study or project concept. After review, we will set up an interview over the phone. If we feel your study/project worths our time and effort, we will intimate you, you may visit us for your study or project.  Once you are accepted,  you will also have to submit a letter from your institution acknowledging your study and subject.

You have to also mention the contribution, financial or otherwise, that you have in mind towards Sarang’s activities according to your capacity.

 

Media – Interview, article or feature

If you are from media and want to do a story on Sarang, please give us some information about yourself through the following form. Basically, we would like to see one or two of your previous stories, a little about you and what is the story angle you are proposing.  We are compelled to do this to see quality, truthful stories about Sarang.  We are sure that you will understand if you are seeing our life’s work more than a piece in your media.

 

Visitors’ registration form.