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Directors: Wolfgang Teuerkauf and Suprabha Seshan

These notes form a part of sanjeev_shankar's research, and these are notes from site visit and survey notes

Imagine driving through a tropical forest area in an Oto-taxi (scooter-type) over a muddy path, suddenly you take a left turn and you continue on an even smaller dirt track. This can't lead anywhere, you think, our driver must be mistaken! And then, just at some point, you stop and seem to have arrived. Small stone steps lead up between the forest vegitation and you go up a track though these plants and trees:

A trained team of local women work on, Ecosystem Gardening - propagating, nurturing and reseeding the largest collection of native plants in the region, and working with local villagers and farmers to reintroduce species to degraded places where they were once found.

In South West India’s Western Ghats only ten per cent of the original forest still remains of one of the world’s most diverse and unique ecosystems. But 50 per cent of native plants are taken for the world‘s medical market and 20% of native species are under threat of extinction within the next 20 years.

Over the years the Sanctuary has acquired small parcels of degraded land and restored them back to native forest. Species diversity and forest structure has returned in areas that were once completely devastated.

The Sanctuary has close connections to this school: C F L http://cfl.in/about.html

The schoolbus-driver testing some stilts.

a node about my Drawing Class with CFL students.

And to the first school for tribal children run and financed by the children, a 'sanctuary' for tribal culture: Kanavu

Recently the Sanctuary won the Withley Award see Suprabha Seshan

The Sanctuary has close connections to this Krishnamurti school in Brittain: Brockwood http://www.brockwood.org.uk/gallery/index.htm

A Dutch support organization will answer any questions related to the place like DONATIONS: Shibumi http://www.shibumifriends.org/

see Ecosystem Gardening

Address:

• Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary
• Alattil P.O.
• North Wayanad
• Kerala 670644
• India