Innovation

INNOVATION OVERVIEW

Nature's Nest is a nature resort based in the Western Ghats of Goa. Nature's Nest offers personalised birding, wilderness and adventure experiences. These unique experiences are aimed at providing a wholesome experience of the region in terms of rich bird life, wildlife, geography, culture, and cuisine of the region. At the core of the experience is the team of local youth from mainly forest areas who have been picked up and trained towards offering quality service to our guests. The business model is aimed towards sustainable nature tourism, which resulted in engaging activities like solid waste management, tree plantation, environmental education, and conservation research.

INNOVATORS

Mr. Pankaj Lad, Co-founder

Mr. Sangam Patil, Co-founder

Mr. Ramesh Zarmekar, Co-founder

OFFERINGS & SDGS COVERED

Goal 8) Decent work and economic growth: Employment and training to local youth

Goal 12) Responsible consumption and production: Solid waste management

Goal 15) Life on Land: Birding, Wilderness, Adventure Experience, Environment education & conservation research

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING TO LOCAL YOUTH

The organisation is focused on providing alternative employment to the local community nearby. The local community has been trained to provide hospitality services to tourists. Tourists experience the local culture such as folk dance, handicrafts, penmanship, and local cuisine. The main aim is to teach the tourists how local communities develop as per their surroundings. The organisation employs approximately 15 staff members. Staff members are offered monthly salaries and other perks during festive seasons.

SOLID & WET WASTE MANAGEMENT

Nature's Nest has actively incorporated solid waste management practices in their daily routine. The organisation disposes the solid waste at its own cost. This waste is then deposited at Margao Industrial Estate in Nessai. The wet waste generated is used as compost.

BIRDING, WILDERNESS, ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE, ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION & CONSERVATION RESEARCH

Birding covers the Western Ghats endemics as well as the mangrove and marshland species. Key species include; Malabar Trogon; Malabar Parakeet; Malabar Pied Hornbill, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Malabar Wood-shrike, Malabar White-headed Staring, Nilgiri Flowerpecker, Flame-throated Bulbul, Crimson-backed Sunbird, Blue-eared Kingfisher, Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, Forest Wagtails, Western Crowned Warbler, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Sri Lanka Frogmouth; Collared Kingfisher, Osprey, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Black-capped Kingfisher, Lesser Adjutant, Greater Crested Terns and so on.

In our interaction, Mr. Sangam spoke about various aspects of this innovative idea of connecting people to nature and thereby work towards SDG 15.

Environmental education and research include informing the tourists regarding the biodiversity of Western Ghats. He shared that "Nature’s Nest takes utmost care not to use unethical practices such as capturing animals, using false calls for birds and destroying the natural habitat of lizards or snakes while trekking."

As per company's website (https://www.naturesnestgoa.com), the adventure experiences include wall climbing, bridging, jeep safari etc. A Jeep Safari includes a 90-minute drive into the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary. The sightings vary from a Malabar giant squirrel or a langur to carnivores like leopards.

Inspiration

Based in a small village in the interiors of North Goa called Surla, Nature's Nest, a nature resort, was the brain child of Mr. Sangam Patil, Mr. Pankaj Lad and Mr. Ramesh Zarmekar. During their school days, they were a part of Vivekanand Environment Awareness Brigade (VEAB), an NGO started by their teacher, Mr. Rajendra Kerkar in Keri. The NGO was focused on instilling environmental education and carrying out research, related to environment. During this tenure, they were introduced to the world of nature and the entire experience led them to become environmentally conscious individuals.

Over the years, they went on with pursuing their degrees. Mr. Pankaj Lad, a gold medalist in Geology started working for a mining company in Goa. Mr. Sangam Patil, having a Master’s degree in Social Biology, now worked for a pharmaceutical company called Lupin Pharma. And Ramesh Zarmekar, an Arts graduate, started his career in the hotel industry at Taj. "As we 3 were routed commonly with the NGO and the passion for serving the nature and the forest, that's how we thought that we have to do something that would in return give back to the forests & help in their conservation. And, which would also generate income for us. That's how we came together to form this place called Nature's Nest", says Mr. Sangam Patil. The trio now strives toward popularizing the conservation of biodiversity in Goa and its protected areas, through Nature's Nest.

Overall impact

Located in the midst of scenic Western Ghats, Nature’s Nest provides a unique solution for the betterment of society with its unique innovation idea. With the inception of Nature Nest, it provides employment to local youth and also provides job opportunities to daily wage workers. With the increase in people’s interest in nature and a further increase in tourism, it will help them to create more job opportunities for the locals.

With its unique idea, tourists have started flocking toward this side of Goa, which is not known to many people. When people think of Goa, they think about beaches. But, Goa has many other facets to offer. It has a large biodiversity and has 6 wildlife protected areas. Because of this fact, many tourists are keen on knowing more about and seeing the local Goan culture. This gives the locals a unique opportunity to showcase their culture and also helps them retain it. In a way, these activities help them to carry forward their legacy to the future generation and also prevents people from migrating to different states for job opportunities.

Nature's Nest also provides team building and leadership training to many corporations as a part of their program. These activities emphasize more on increasing bonding between the corporate employees. Sangam Patil talks about "Biomimicry", which is something that can be learned from nature and can be incorporated into our daily lives and also in the corporate culture. He further gave an example of colonization of bees where different bees have different responsibilities, but work together for the smooth functioning of the colony. So from this, we learn that people working in the same organisation have different responsibilities, but they need to work together for the greater good of the organisation. In the long run, this also helps in creating a feeling of empathy towards each other.

Along with engaging in activities like solid waste management, tree plantation and environmental education, Nature's Nest also serves as a beneficial promoter of sustainable nature tourism and is also helping in creating awareness regarding nature, among different stakeholders like people, businesses, etc.

Business benefit

People from all over the world, come to Nature’s Nest primarily for bird watching and bird photography tours. Also, it focuses on educating people regarding the importance of nature and its diversity through adventure programs like trekking and rope activities. Being unique in providing such experiences, Nature’s Nest attracts many tourists such as families, nature enthusiasts, corporations, etc. The Eco-cottages serve as an abode to the tourists during their stay. In this way, along with generating revenue, the innovative business model of Nature’s Nest also gives back to the society and the environment.

Nature’s Nest currently employees 9 full-time permanent employees and 7-10 temporary employees depending on the availability of workers and the business requirements. For the purpose of employee well-being, apart from providing regular salaries, they have a system of a Common Tipping Box which is entirely divided among all the employees. Also, for major festivals like Diwali and Ganesh Utsav, Nature’s Nest provides bonuses and other additional incentives as a privilege to them.

Nature’s Nest also incorporates the local community in its business model by sourcing food from locals, providing a platform for local craftsmen to demonstrate their crafts like pottery, basket making and also organizing folk dance performances for their guests.

By adopting this innovative model, the founders of Nature’s Nest are not only achieving monetary profit but at the same time, they are also working towards achieving sustainable development by giving back to the local communities and making tourists more aware and concerned about the environment.

Social and environmental benefit

Nature’s Nest plays an important role in boosting eco-tourism in the Western Ghats of Goa. There are six sanctuaries around Goa, out of which four are in the Western Ghats. The Ghats are known for its rich flora and fauna. You find many migratory birds in the Ghats, which is a major tourist attraction. The Western Ghats is a home to various local tribes, each tribe having a unique culture. Being a centre for ecotourism, Nature’s Nest helps these locals to get livelihood via tourism. The locals display crafts and perform folk dances for the tourists, thus, helping them retain their culture and also to carry forward this culture to the next generation. This, in turn, reduces the migration of local tribes to urban places. As per the UNDP website (http://www.undp.org/), this work is directly in conjunction with UN global goal “Decent work and Economic growth”.

Bird watching and trekking are some of the activities conducted by Nature’s Nest. These activities are excellent and fun ways to learn more about the environment and build a sense of attachment to nature. People from all over the world, come here to find and study particular bird species. The organization uses the latest high tech devices which capture different sounds and signals of birds and analyze it to find the location of the bird. It helps the society to identify the diversity of bird population over the years and find the reason behind those changes. This majorly contributes to “Life on Land” goal of UN.

Nature’s Nest strives towards educating people regarding the environment and making them environmentally conscious individuals. This would, in turn, make them mindful and think twice before destroying the nature for self-fulfillment purposes.

Interview

Sangam Patil, Co-founder