The main Sarang campus is at 800 meters above sea level on a hill top. Its approachable by a trail walked by the people who have been living here for ages. There is a road usable by four wheel drive vehicles. We use it mainly for transport of goods. All our experiments happened here. The regenerated forest, Bamboo checkdams, percolation pits, wild orchid and the farm are here. We ran a school on this hill top once. Gautham, Anuradha and their two children have moved back to the campus in June 2013. Now they are trying to re-build everything and make this campus active by the time everyone else in the satellite campus returns.

The region is called Attappady, the second plateau in Kerala, leaning towards east. Its in Palakkad district.  Since its a rain shadow area, droughts occur often. Once a forest denser than Silent Valley National Park, deforestation turned the landscape barren.

We hope to update this page as we progress in re-building the campus.

News from the hills

One day workshop for Parents : Bangalore

Date : 14 August Venue : Visthar, Hennur, Bangalore We are glad to see your interest in this one day workshop for parents. This note provides you the basic information about the event. Partcipants We intend this programme to primarily focus on parents and would-be-parents who are already seeking alternatives towards a life-based education for their children. This is important since the children’s future is of immediate concern to them. While giving priority to the couples and young...

The kitchen being finished

Our kitchen is almost finished. Here are some pictures showing the progress from the...

Building the Rural University : Thanks to all supporters

Towards the end of 2012, we put up a fundraiser for building 'Sarang Rural University'. Many people promised support, some donated money, some spent a few days working with us, many spread the word, helped us with various equipment, contacts and many boosted our morale simply with their good words and smiles. Gautham and Anuradha have been the basic team, with a couple of friends helping now and then. Luckily, a group of hardworking youngsters could be hired from the neighbourhood for help. We...

Blue bearded Bee-eater

The Blue-bearded Bee-eater (Nyctyornis athertoni) is a large species of bee-eater found in much of the Indian Subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. This species is found in openings in patches of dense forest. Appearance of this bird is another example of the micro-climatic change that happens on this hill. Read more about this beauty on Wikipedia...

Birds in the campus

As the forest grew more and more species of birds appeared. We will be adding shots or checklist as we get them. If you are good with this, you can come, stay here and document the birds for us. We will be updating a list of birds seen here as and when possible. (Don't worry even if you see this post not being populated beyond this after a year. We are too less people to do too much work! ;)...

Little family moves to the hill

Though living away from the hills, Gautham and Anu dwelt there in all their dreams. They planned and replanned how the rural university would look like, what their lives would be like there! They traveled to the hills with all their spare time and money to build small structures like the cattle shed, a bathroom, a new kitchen. Many volunteers and the rest of the Sarang team were part of much of this work. This June, they finally moved to the hills with their little children, Hiranya and...

The Sun Powers Sarang

June 2013 saw Sarang being powered by a 1 Kilo Watt Solar Electrical System. Allotted to Sarang under the  '10,000 roof top solar' project, an initiative by ANERT, Government of Kerala, it is subsidized up to 50% by the State and Central Governments. Thanks to this project, the money contributed by friends & well-wishers has literally...