Access
One gate
A single controlled entrance, appointment-only visits and a written visitor register.
Off-grid by design
Sun in, rain kept, nothing wasted.
Power
Designed to run on solar generation and battery storage, with no generator as the everyday source. Quiet by day, dark by night.
Water
Rainwater harvesting and recharge, with the land's streams and seeps protected, so the forest keeps its own water through the dry months.
Waste
Composting and treated greywater returned to the soil. The aim is that nothing leaves the land that the land could have used.
Connection
Reliable internet. Connected where it must be, quiet everywhere else.
Private and secure
Seen by no one you did not invite.
Security at Vanvaas is about presence and discretion, not fortification.
People
Always someone here
A resident caretaker team on the land, day and night, who know every path.
Perimeter
Boundaries that respect wildlife
A marked, maintained boundary designed around animal movement routes, not across them.
Privacy
Discretion by default
No drone overflights, no photography of members without consent, and no sharing of member details.
Safety
A plan for the unexpected
A written emergency plan, first-aid-trained staff.
Flora and fauna
Counted, protected, never collected.
Vanvaas adjoins the Talakaveri Wildlife Sanctuary, so wildlife moves freely across the boundary. A baseline survey in the first year records what is already here. After that, seasonal monitoring tells us whether the forest is thriving, and what we should change if it is not.
Over 90% of Vanvaas is kept as minimum-intervention forest, closed to routine access. We honour the Kodava tradition of sacred groves, devarakadu, wherever we find them.
What lives here
Malabar giant squirrel · Ratufa indica
The people of the land
A forest is never only trees.
Vanvaas employs, trains and learns from people of the surrounding villages: caretakers, guides, naturalists and cooks. They know this country in ways no visitor will.
Their livelihoods are part of the plan, not an afterthought to it. A forest that the neighbouring villages feel excluded from is not a protected forest for long.
Talk to us about Vanvaas