RIK: I grew up on a crop-farm which I managed with my father until I was 27 (1994). Then I stopped because I disagreed with the direction crop-farming in Holland was heading.
My heart was always with nature and for years I would spend up to 6 months in the tropics and my dream was always to live a simple life in a small hut in the ‘jungle’. So for me it was only natural to study Tropical Forestry.
In 2000 I read about Auroville and it felt that this was the place I had been looking for. In 2001 I bought a one-way ticket to India. Here everything fell in place. Right from the beginning I was given the opportunity to start a nursery in a forest called Evergreen and I went regularly with some foresters to temple groves, reserve forests and other remnants that could give a little bit of an impression of a local forest-type.
This way I met Dirk who managed much of Success Forest as a sanctuary. In 2002 I moved into Success Forest and in 2004, when Dirk left India, I took over the forest’s management which I continue to this day.
My heart was always with nature and for years I would spend up to 6 months in the tropics and my dream was always to live a simple life in a small hut in the ‘jungle’. So for me it was only natural to study Tropical Forestry.
In 2000 I read about Auroville and it felt that this was the place I had been looking for. In 2001 I bought a one-way ticket to India. Here everything fell in place. Right from the beginning I was given the opportunity to start a nursery in a forest called Evergreen and I went regularly with some foresters to temple groves, reserve forests and other remnants that could give a little bit of an impression of a local forest-type.
This way I met Dirk who managed much of Success Forest as a sanctuary. In 2002 I moved into Success Forest and in 2004, when Dirk left India, I took over the forest’s management which I continue to this day.
RISHI: I was born and raised in Auroville, spent six years in southern France studying Geography in Marseilles and returned to Auroville in 2010. I began working with and studying from a pioneer forester of Auroville, Jean Two-Banyans, who began water conservation work and the reforestation on the Auroville plateau in 1973. In 2014, I became steward of 14 acres of Auroville land which I am restoring to forest.
Kamataru Consultancy is a means for Rik and I to financially run our forests, Success Forest and Kamataru Forest, situated respectively to the south and north of Auroville.
Kamataru Consultancy is a means for Rik and I to financially run our forests, Success Forest and Kamataru Forest, situated respectively to the south and north of Auroville.