I am the co-founder of and principal at a Kerala-based design firm practicing architecture and landscape architecture. At the time of founding the firm in 1998, I had just finished my Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia (Athens, GA). My courses in ecological restoration filled me with enthusiasm for projects and causes connected to rewilding, regenerative agriculture and native-plant landscapes.

I also founded a company for this at the time – Gaia Environmental Conservancy. Gaia now holds 105 acres in the southern Western Ghats (Bodinayakanur, Tamil Nadu) where we are attempting restoration of the native ecology. Formerly a plantation of silk cotton, lime and coffee, the site had been mostly overrun by Lantana and Chromolaena when we started restoration in 2012. We are working with between 20 and 40 species of trees and sub-canopy shrubs, all native to this eco-region.