Practical Hands-on Workshops

Tropical Forest Botany

A five-day field course in tropical forest botany was held at the Rainforest Retreat between January 14th and 19th, 2026. With over 800 native tree species in the Western Ghats, navigating the labyrinthine world of field botany is a daunting prospect. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the subject’s jargon, scale and intricacy. This course took a unique approach, breaking down the process to make tree identification fun and accessible. It targeted students, plant enthusiasts, and early career plant ecologists.

The workshop organised by Maya Goel was led by Dr. Navendu Page, who has studied tree ecology in evergreen forests across the entire stretch of the Western Ghats. He currently works as a Scientist with the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation and devotes his time to documenting the diversity and distribution of plants across India. He has been teaching field botany for over 10 years, with the motivation of getting young biologists interested in plants. The Rainforest Retreat, with its Sholai forests and thriving biodiversity, was an ideal venue for this workshop.

We were also able to offer scholarships to five participants, supported generously by Ecological Restoration Alliance (ERA) and Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF).

Training Farmers

We host workshops to impart training in simple, low-cost sustainable methods of agriculture while emphasizing the important role biodiversity plays in agro-ecology. Some of the methods we demonstrate are: preparation and uses of liquid manures such as panchkavya and jeevamruth, rich nourishing bokashi compost using EM, Biochar, and botanical pest-repellents, etc. The most recent farmer workshops (in collaboration with Sai Sanctuary) were conducted in May and June 2018 to encourage Kodagu planters to embrace sustainable, organic cultivation.

Sustainable Design and Building

Adobe workshops (partnered by master mud builder Jackson) have become a regular feature at the Retreat. We do everything from making mud bricks to fine design and artwork.

We have previously constructed a small bathroom (with CEPT students), a set of beautiful benches and recently, a new Mud Hut.