Joyful human endeavour creating regenerative systems for the wellbeing of community and biosphere.

Group of nine young adults outdoors on large rocks, surrounded by greenery, with a cloudy sky in the background.

We design for whole systems that harvest water, grow forests and create spaces for human habitation across:

Farms and large landscapes

Urban commons

Collectives, communities & layouts

Schools, institutes and industries

We believe land regeneration is a participatory process. Our work is rooted in sharing knowledge, empowering people to understand their land, and building systems with them - not just for them. While most of our work is concentrated in southern India, we work across bioregions, adapting our approach to each unique place and context.

Founded in 2017 by Kiri, Jananee, and Himanshu, Ananas had an initial focus on permaculture design projects. As our team grew, so did the scope of our work - expanding into ecological restoration, landscape design, community layouts, and more.

The name Ananas - meaning pineapple in over 40 languages - reflects both resilience and lightness. While the work of regeneration is deeply meaningful, we believe it’s just as important to approach it with curiosity, connection, a sprinkle of humour and an openness to joy :)

People of Ananas

Our team brings together a diverse mix of skills and perspectives -- we believe great design emerges from collaboration across disciplines.

We are designers, architects, accountants, naturalists, gardeners and systems thinkers. Some of us work closely with water and land, others with plants, people, and wildlife. Together, we approach every project as a living system - where each element, perspective and set of experiences, plays a vital role.

Co-founders

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A woman with short dark hair, multiple ear piercings, and a small nose piercing, wearing a yellow T-shirt and a gray backpack, outdoors in a wooded area.

Jananee Mohan

Kiri Meili

  • Jananee Mohan is a Permie with a design background from NIFT. She completed her Permaculture Design course with Rico Zook and Narsanna Koppula in January 2017, and her vision is to use design thinking to integrate non-linear small-scale self-sustaining systems that can transcend into larger patterns of community resilience.

    She spent her formative years in her grandfather's farm, who was a self-taught natural farmer and used innovative ways to integrate the inputs and outputs of his farm. She shares the same kinship as him with soil and all the faunal and floral diversity of a farm. She also firmly believes in extending principles of permaculture to all aspects of one’s life to achieve holistic well-being of the planet.

    Growing up in Bangalore all her life, her goals are to work with small groups of intelligent and sprightful communities in the city to transition into meeting their urban needs more holistically, and to drive permaculture thinking into mainstream consciousness.

  • Kiri was born in England and spent her formative years in Switzerland and Bangalore.

    Upon completion of a bachelors in environmental social sciences at the University of Kent in England she moved back to India, first doing urban farming and earth care workshops in Mumbai before moving back to the south.

    In 2014 she discovered permaculture and completed her first PDC with Rico Zook, followed by other trainings including a Teacher Training with Jude Hobbs and Advanced Course with Christoff Schneider. This new path in whole systems design brought together the range of topics she’d been drawn to over the years and provided a systematic, process-driven way forward. It also connected her with Jananee and Himanshu and together they founded Ananas in 2017.

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Himanshu Arteev

  • Himanshu Arteev is an ecological planner-designer-implementer with an experience in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies from an ecological, social and a regional standpoint. His specific interests and expertise lie in water conservation, wetland restoration, social equity and designing for adaptation to changing habitats.

    With a foundation in environmental, regional and urban planning from the London School of Economics and permaculture training from Narsanna Koppula, Rico Zook, and Jude Hobbs, he blends his expertise to create processes for self-sustaining and regenerative human habitats. When he is not stopping at every pond, wetland or open well to take photos, he strives to craft a world where nature and society coexist.

    Kiri, Jananee and Himanshu co created Ananas in 2017, which nurtures a small, incredibly diverse and passionate team. They transform bold visions into reality, supporting ecosystems that regenerate and inspire.

Ecological Designers

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A smiling woman with dark shoulder-length hair and earrings, standing outdoors in front of green leafy trees, wearing a sleeveless white top.

Sanjana Radhakrishnan

Theertha Ravindran

  • Sanjana grew up in cantonments across the country, surrounded by gardens and green spaces that sparked her love for plants and landscapes. But it was the wild, overgrown patches at the edges - abandoned gardens and forgotten corners - where her curiosity truly came alive. With a family that shared a deep love for wildlife, farming and botany, her interest in ecology - and in shaping spaces - took root early on.

    Trained as an architect, she briefly explored interior design but soon found herself drawn back to landscapes. A Permaculture Design Certification course with Rico Zook expanded her understanding of regenerative design and ecology. For the last five years, Sanjana has been part of the diverse team at Ananas, working at the intersection of ecological restoration and landscape design. Her work focuses on ecological site assessments, water management, planting design and regenerative land-use strategies across farms and rural landscapes. She enjoys blending technical design tools with systems thinking, using them to create spaces that are fluid, resilient, beautiful and deeply rooted in ecology.

    Outside of work, she loves exploring art, craft and natural history, finding ways to connect with plants, materials and landscapes.

    You can explore more of her work here.

  • Theertha is an explorer, who is passionate about regenerative methods of design and keen to unlearn and learn. As a young architecture graduate, her interests shifted towards the Socio-environment sector early on. This change in perspective, brought upon during her internship at Auroville, took her to Rajasthan through the India Fellow Programme to work with an NGO in the forests of Ranthambhore.

    Soon after working with the children in Sawai Madhopur and returning to home base in Bangalore, Theertha worked with Jalaposhan Trust, a citizen group that works with conserving Jakkur Lake (urban commons). Through her experience as lake manager at Jakkur Lake, she found her interest lies in the relationship of local communities and their role in the conservation of the environment. She also found herself awed by the intertwined relationships of flora & fauna with their habitats.

    Theertha enjoys taking pictures of patterns & details observed of plants, insects, and life of all forms. She believes that it is important to continue to learn, and hopes to do so from all communities, permies, designers, wanderers through sharing knowledge and experiences.

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Joshua Danesh

  • Joshua is an ecological designer with a background in architecture and work experience in landscape architecture and design. As a student pursuing architecture, his interests were geared towards sustainable practices and blurring the divide between designed spaces and the natural world. This area of interest was nurtured during the course of practice as a junior landscape architect, which deepened his interest in regenerative ecosystems and permaculture practices.

    The Permaculture Design Course with Narsanna Koppula brought in the lens of a whole systems approach in his practice. He enjoyed observing and understanding patterns and relations in an ecosystem, which allowed for appreciating the land in its current state of being whilst aiding its regeneration. He strongly believes in the need to coexist with the natural world and tries to bring that in through his work.
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Gautam Shanbhag

Amol Kadam

  • Gautam grew up on a tiny desert island called Bahrain for most of his life. His world then opened up to a truly wild environment for the first time in the grasslands of Kenya in 2019, during a wildlife conservation trip with UNIA. This instilled a lingering curiosity which immediately took him to the forests of Kanha, after his graduation in Architecture in 2022. He trained as a naturalist under the guidance of Narayana Rangaswamy with TajSafaris and discovered his deep interest for avifauna.

    An artist at his core, his strong incline towards design informs his praxis that is functional yet aesthetic, woven with strong contextual narratives. He enjoys bridging these gaps in ecological design, that is inherently wild and organic. He aims to get his hands dirty as he closely studies the evolution of a landscape through anthropological factors. You can find him at a park, likely drawing a tree he admires.

  • Amol Kadam is an animal husbandry specialist with over 21 years of deep learning in the field with a focus on natural rearing and animal welfare practices. Raised on a farm on the outskirts of Bangalore, watching his father, a dairy technologist, run a dairy farm along side paddy cultivation, he observed the subtle intricacies and interconnectedness of animal husbandry and organic agriculture, contributing beautifully towards the health of the farm ecosystem. As a second generation farmer, being mindful of the rapidly changing climate, the increasing pressures on food and water systems, he gravitated towards alternative agricultural philosophies to stumble upon permaculture. His vision continues, to create resilient, regenerative landscapes with an aim to integrate design principles mimicking natural ecosystems.

    At Ananas Amol brings to the team his hands on ground experience over the years, people management and analytical skills. His guiding principles—rooted in his upbringing on the farm—continue to inspire his work, as he seeks to cultivate not just food, but also a deeper connection between people and the land.

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Prithvi Rajesh

  • Prithvi has grown up in Bangalore and has spent the last seven years studying Anthropology, Environmental Studies and completing his MSc in Ecological Design. Gardening and travelling to different ecosystems are what initially sparked his curiosity and love for human-environment relationships outside the urban context. His experience across different parts of Southern India, Florida, Hawai'i and Massachusetts includes working at a tropical fruit tree nursery, creating organic gardens in schools, educating young people and designing landscapes across various scales. He is fascinated by all things plants, animals, food, culture and history.

    Grounded in the belief that humans can have a mutually beneficial relationship with the land and guided by close examination of site conditions, he aims to create thoughtful and resilient landscape designs.

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Vijayananda KP (Nursery Manager)

  • Vijayananda K P is an environmental professional with expertise in vegetation studies and plant taxonomy, particularly RET species identification and ecological monitoring across diverse forest ecosystems. Hailing from the district of gold mines, Kolar, he holds a Master’s in Environmental Science from Bangalore University. He has conducted extensive research in the Shola grasslands of the Western Ghats, focusing on biodiversity, carbon assessment, and traditional ecological knowledge. His publications highlight riparian tree resilience to climate change and their role in livelihoods and ecotourism in the Cauvery River Basin.

    Currently, he oversees Ananas Nursery operations, cultivating and taking care of the native species nurturing endemism. Driven by a passion for ecological conservation, he believes that every plant nurtured today is a step toward a greener, more resilient tomorrow.

Lost to Master’s…

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Varun Behroonani

Debasish Satapathy

  • Varun specialises in understanding the hydrology of landscapes and designing integrated water management strategies that seamlessly integrate with their natural context and enhance natural processes. He enjoys leveraging GIS platforms and open-source geospatial data to analyse environmental factors such as climate, topography, soil and geology, and apply it to landscape and ecological analysis. His passion also lies in exploring and learning about floral communities through the lens of ecology and the dynamics of ecological succession. Driven by a passion for continuous learning, Varun actively deepens his knowledge in ecological principles, integrating new insights into context-sensitive designs. His approach is a dynamic interplay between research and practice, where hands-on fieldwork and implementation inform design improvements, creating solutions that are both practical and deeply rooted in ecological principles. Bringing a unique interdisciplinary perspective, Varun draws on his early academic background in finance to enhance his ability to approach water planning with precision and analytical rigour, blending past expertise with his current focus on ecology and water design.

    Varun is currently pursuing an MSc in Environmental Studies (Conservation Practice) at ATREE, Bangalore.

  • Debasish originally hails from the Eastern Ghats of Odisha and is an aspiring ecologist. With a bachelor's in design, he(/they) has worked across corporates, design consultancies as well as self-help groups for half a decade as a graphic and communication designer. However, his true passion for ecology and the looming climate crisis led him to transition into volunteering for organizations dealing with conservation, restoration, and climate change. While volunteering for a flora survey in Odisha, he got the opportunity to collaborate with Ananas for the first time. With this unique blend of design thinking and ecological knowledge, Debasish revels in understanding the correlation between everything that moves and everything that doesn’t and of course their impact on the local ecology. Debasish believes in failing and actively fails to find out that singular bio-geographic pattern or concept imposing its way through the plurality of nature.

    “You teach me, I forget. You show me, I remember. You involve me, I understand.”- Edward O. Wilson.

    Debasish is currently pursuing an MSc in Environmental Studies (Conservation Practice) at ATREE, Bangalore.

Our team in its element

Rain gauge workshop
Group of people exploring a rocky hilltop with lush greenery and distant mountains under a cloudy sky.
With our earthworks team
Rain or sun, we get the work done
Yenjoying
Sunset from a swale
A group of twelve people standing outdoors on a dirt path surrounded by trees and greenery, with mountains in the background. A black and tan dog is in the foreground, facing away from the camera.
Group of five people in the field, with one person holding an umbrella, under a clear blue sky.
Several people are outdoor on a dirt trail amid greenery, with a cloudy sky overhead. One person on the right, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and checkered shirt, faces away from the camera, while a group further down the trail appears to be interacting
Post-implementation with volunteers
Group of people standing on a dirt field in a rural area with green trees and mountains in the background and cloudy sky.
Group of five people standing and measuring on a sandy, open field with scattered plants, clouds in the sky, and a wooden fence in the background.
Two people, a child and an adult, are standing in a grassy field with tall plants, looking at something on a clipboard or notebook.
People gathered outdoors around a stone table with maps, discussing and working on planning or urban design on a sunny day. Some are seated, taking notes, while others stand.
Two people outdoors in a grassy area with bushes and trees. One man in a beige hat is holding a coconut, and a woman wearing a hat and mask is observing.
Two people outdoors, one man and one woman, with the man wearing yellow gloves and the woman holding a bottle, both wearing hats, with greenery and a rocky hill in the background, possibly participating in a gardening or outdoor activity.
Two people working in a dense, green forest, with trees and underbrush, collecting soil or plant samples using tools and wearing hats and gloves.
People planting seeds in three sections of soil, with shells at the bottom and black seeds being distributed on top.
Group of people sitting on outdoor steps under a gazebo, engaged in reading or writing with backpacks and shoes on the steps.
Group of four hikers with backpacks walking through a lush forest, surrounded by dense green foliage and trees.
People exploring a large ancient stone monument outdoors on a cloudy day, surrounded by rocks and hills.
Three people working in a waterlogged outdoor area with trees, grass, and muddy ground, using tools for digging or planting.
Three people working outdoors along a fence in a green, wooded area. One person is bending down, while the other two stand nearby, wearing wide-brimmed hats.
Two women exploring a green, lush forest, one pointing into the distance.
People wearing raincoats walking through a dense, green forest with tall trees and lush vegetation.
Three people and a guide dog in a lush green outdoor setting with blue sky, one person is pointing, another pets the dog, the third observes.
Five people standing on a dirt path outdoors, engaged in conversation, with green trees and a partly cloudy sky in the background.
Three people hiking on a trail in a green forest, looking at pink and white flowering plants.
A group of eight people gathered around a wooden table, working on papers and notebooks, with books, a smartphone, and a water bottle on the table, outdoors with greenery in the background.
Group of seven people sitting on benches and chairs outdoors, engaged in conversation. They are surrounded by plants and a stone wall.
A woman with short curly hair in a blue t-shirt and shorts stands outside on a gravel path, looking at a brown dog sitting in front of her. The dog is wearing a bandana and there are two cups and a snack on the ground near the dog. Two people are sta
A dirt trail running through grass and small bushes in a rural area, with trees and hills in the background, and several children playing or walking in the distance
Group of five people standing around a round table with purple tablecloth under a thatched roof structure, with outdoor greenery visible in the background. One person is holding a cup, others are looking at items on the table.
Group of six people standing outdoors on stone-paved ground, smiling, with green foliage behind them.
A group of people standing on a dirt path in nature, with one person squatting and touching the ground, surrounded by bushes and trees, under a clear blue sky.
People sitting in a room watching a presentation projected on the wall, featuring a collage of outdoor photos with trees, mountains, and people hiking or exploring nature.