The team | Project Lichen

Aviation, architecture, civil engineering, film. Land problems cross disciplines, so the collective does too. Here are some of us.

Rakshith Pawar U.

Design & spatial analysis

Rakshith began with a question he could not shake: nobody waters a forest, so why does the land we grow food on need so much help? He did his Permaculture Design Certificate with Aranya in 2022 and now designs food forests across Karnataka. He is also a filmmaker, and reads a site the way he would read a frame.

His first teacher was a 1,000 sq ft backyard in Bangalore. Seven years on it is a food forest of 55 species, and it is where he made the mistakes that now save clients time.

Since then he has facilitated designs for a fallow acre in Bangalore Rural, a 35,000 sq ft farm at Nandi Hills, 10 guntas at Lepakshi where the custodians run the system themselves, and land in Sakleshpur and Hosur.

Every project starts with a drone survey: a 3D model, elevation and contour maps, the whole picture from above before any decisions. Designs stack functions, so each element does more than one job, and are built out in phases that the people living there can follow.

He teaches soil and water harvesting to children and adults, and co-developed an ecological design curriculum for two schools in 2023.

Manish Chadda

Water & built structures

Manish is a civil engineer with over 25 years of experience, ten of them designing water conservation and rainwater harvesting systems. He is an accredited green building professional and Vice President of Every Drop Counts Foundation, a national NGO working on water conservation.

He is the author of Drops of Hope, a guide to water conservation and nature, and has been recognised for his water work by UNESCO and the Government of India.

He brings:

Rainwater harvesting design and implementation
Watershed management and soil-water conservation
Greywater and blackwater treatment
Water efficiency for green buildings
Community-scale water infrastructure planning

Credentials: Green Associate (USGBC) and Accredited Professional (IGBC).

Nauras Indori

Soil & living systems

Nauras spent nine years in aviation before turning to regenerative agriculture. She is a permaculture practitioner and facilitator, and an amateur soil microbiologist, drawn to how energy and water move through land and how healthy soil makes everything else possible.

She has worked with the Meghalaya Basin Development Management Agency in the Garo Hills on soil and water conservation.

She is also a wilderness guide who has led trek groups in the Himalayas, and a Wilderness Advanced First Aider.

Her aim is to help people adopt practices that rebuild soil and, with it, the long-term health of the land.

Vikram Gattu

Architecture & natural building

Vikram is an architect, landscape designer and permaculturist with over nine years of practice. His line is “In pursuit of architecture, I found life.” He designs buildings and landscapes as part of a living site rather than as objects placed on it.

He studied architecture at JNAFAU, Hyderabad, and has worked across studios, housing projects and restoration in Hyderabad, Goa and Auroville.

Through Aranya Permaculture Academy he has volunteered, assisted in teaching, facilitated and coordinated projects, and consulted with learners, educators, communities and farming cooperatives.

He is interested in how people and places change together, and works from observation, adaptability and long-term resilience.

People who came to land from somewhere else.

Rakshith Pawar U.

Manish Chadda

Nauras Indori

Vikram Gattu