Meet the artisans turning the invasive lantana into life-sized elephants, decor

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If you thought illegal encroachments in cities and land being poached are issues limited to the human world, unfortunately it is a common occurrence in nature too. Especially when one speaks about invasive plant species like the Lantana camara. The flowering shrub, among the world’s top 10 invasive species, was introduced to India as an ornamental plant in the early 1800s. Since, it has taken over entire ecosystems, and eaten into forests across the country. As per reports, ‘multiple hybrid varieties of lantana were brought to India and over the 200 years of its introduction, the varieties have hybridised and formed a complex’. Lantana is known to envelop and ‘entangle other plants by forming a dense thicket, and spread on the forest floor as a scrambling shrub’. To help tackle this, a few organisations have been actively clearing the weed in certain pockets and employing locals to craft furniture, decor artefacts, and even sculptures. We explore three such establishments in South India.

Providing sustainable livelihoods for forest-dependent communities is a key part of The Lantana Project | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Shola Trust, Nilgiris

USP: Life-sized elephant sculptures

Price: The elephants are sold upwards of $8,000 (₹6 lakh) on partner websites

Over a decade ago, in 2009 to be precise, The Lantana Project was launched by the non-profit conservation organisation based in Gudalur, at the edge of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Established two years prior, The Shola Trust was on a mission to promote “human-inclusive models of nature conservation, drawing inspiration from the unique high-altitude sholas of the Nilgiris and the indigenous communities living there”, says Tarsh Thekaekara, co-founder of The Shola Trust. He adds that the primary reason for launching The Lantana Project was to address “the widespread problem posed by Lantana camara, the invasive shrub species that was choking the forests of the Nilgiris, reducing biodiversity, and making it difficult for both wildlife and local communities to thrive”.

The project aimed to manage and reduce the spread of lantana, while simultaneously providing sustainable livelihoods for forest-dependent communities. The first effort involved roping in locals to craft furniture from lantana, supported by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). “ATREE played a crucial role in our efforts by helping us train artisans to make furniture out of lantana. Their expertise and support provided the foundation for our work with lantana and enabled us to develop the necessary skills within our community,” says Thekaekara, who also collaborated with brands such as The Purple Turtles and Oorjaa who crafted lampshades and bins with lantana. “These collabs showed promise in improving both sales and awareness about the lantana issue, but were not employing large numbers of people of providing significant livelihood. We have since shifted away from furniture making due to a better value proposition with elephants,” he explains. 

A significant challenge was that the adivasi way of working was not aligned with factory production assembly lines | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Today, the Trust works with ATREE, WWF, and NCBS (also a part of the research and advocacy platform, Lantana Collective),  in research around how to restore forests after removing lantana. It is also involved with creating life-sized elephant sculptures for The Real Elephant Collective, an organisation Thekaekara founded in 2016 alongside Shubhra Nayar Subhash and Tariq T. He says it began as a response to mobilise the cultural affinity towards elephants, leveraging their popularity to garner social capital and channel it towards real-world conservation efforts. “These sculptures are crafted by artisans from across South India, many of whom experience the daily negotiation with Nature first-hand. The Real Elephant Collective, along with Coexistence Story USA and Elephant Family UK, takes herds of these life-sized elephants to green spaces worldwide. About 150 have gained employment, earning over ₹4 crore in the last six years, compared to about ₹30 lakh in making furniture in the eight years before that” says Thekaekara, adding that the sale of these sculptures primarily occurs through international exhibitions and auctions, primarily to raise funds for conservation.

One would think mainstream furniture and collabs with design houses would deem it a successful project, but the on-ground reality is way different. While these collaborations raised “some awareness and improved sales”, Thekaekara says the overall impact was limited. “A significant challenge was that the adivasi way of working was not aligned with factory production assembly lines. The elephant sculptures have successfully managed to overcome that, providing a model that better fits their working style which includes taking days off for festivals, a preference for working in large groups, etc,” he explains, adding that this approach, however, means the cost of production is higher than other market products. Thus, a high-margin, low-volume business model was deemed more suitable for these communities. “Their inability to manage cash flows and find their own markets were also significant challenges. In total, we realised that expecting the indigenous communities to run enterprises after a one-month training programme in skill building was far too optimistic. There were so many more aspects to running a business that needed handholding and support and so our initiative was setting them up to fail.”

More importantly, the furniture project only partially served their purpose of clearing lantana from forests. “Despite our efforts, the amount of lantana cleared for furniture making was not clearing lantana from significant areas and restoring forests, since only a few stems can be used for this.”

(L to R) Chandran, Pradeep, Arun, Ketan, O. Ramesh, Pravin, Manikandan, Ketan and Mani, artisans at The Shola Trust | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A new effort is now underway, to pulverise the entire plant and sell the biomass. The Real Elephant Collective with the help of The Shola Trust has made “significant progress in developing ecologically appropriate machinery for large-scale lantana removal, integrating removal, restoration, habitat improvement, and livelihood creation into a circular economy model”. Thekaekara says the use of lantana in its natural form to produce furniture and high-end art products, as well as in a pulverised form for applications such as pellets and boards, shows promise. “Producing biochar from lantana can sequester carbon and promote sustainable agriculture, further amplifying the environmental benefits of this project,” he adds. The Trust is now working towards eradicating Senna spectabilis, another invasive species, by using appropriate machinery to remove trees and roots, and a Senna toy-making unit has also been set up.

Furniture crafted at ATREE | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

ATREE, MM Hills, Karnataka

USP: Baskets, chairs, cots, and bookshelves

Price: Between ₹200 and ₹30,000s

Harisha R.P., project coordinator, ATREE | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The research outfit’s Lantana Craft Centre (LCC) that launched in 2004 was aimed at addressing the high density (70%) of lantana in the dry deciduous forest areas in MM Hills. “This impacted local biodiversity and I tried to create livelihood opportunities for local forest-dependent communities,” says Harisha R.P., project coordinator, ATREE, who started LCC by employing locals (who earn between ₹15,000-20,000 every month) to craft artefacts and furniture.

Over the years, around 105 different lantana craft products were developed by the craftsmen. These include baskets, chairs, cots, bookshelves, and other decor artefacts. “There is no retail outlet, and products are crafted on-order,” says Harisha, of the 120-member artisan cluster in MM Hills, a town in Karnataka. While the lantana is sourced from the adjoining forest, it is a difficult task. He explains, “Collectors have to travel a minimum of 5 kms inside the forest as the density of lantana has decreased close to their settlements, which is a good thing and will have a positive impact on the regeneration of native species.”

Como Agua, Goa, is a restaurant themed on a bird’s nest | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Bamboo Pecker, Bengaluru

USP: Large-scale projects with lantana

Price: Seaters upwards of ₹18,000; Structural cladding upwards of ₹320 per sq.ft.

At the sustainable home and lifestyle brand championing grass varieties such as bamboo and sabai, experiments with lantana started a few years ago. Director Suman Roddam explains how he had tried working with the shrub in 2015 as a replacement to cane, “but unfortunately that was shelved because of the requirement to change our factory process extensively in order to use this material in furniture”. Later, in 2021, the team started working with lantana again, but this time around in its raw form, with zero processing. “The fact that architecture and design firms were looking for alternatives to add radical and rustic components to their designs helped us bring this material back to the market. This second life for lantana in space and architectural design is here to stay as it possibly has no cheaper alternative,” says Roddam, adding that such design solutions are not just sustainable, but regenerative. 

Suman Roddam | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

For his first lantana-based project in Goa, Como Agua, Roddam was asked to design and build a restaurant themed on a bird’s nest. “Birds build their nests with twigs that they forage, and we built a nest with Lantana camara, where people can dine in a space designed to resemble a weaver bird’s nest,” says the designer. The project was executed entirely by the tribal communities of Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, and the lantana was harvested by the tribal communities of Chamarajanagar division, Karnataka. “Our cane artisans trained them in weaving with lantana. These artisans who were only into agricultural activities have realised this as an alternative income source. This project also helped us realise the dream to find an opportunity to showcase this material architecturally to the world and highlight the ecological issues posed by this fast-growing invasive weed in our forests.”  Other commercial projects with lantana include Socials at Prestige Tech Pacific, Bengaluru, Laval Areosa, Goa, and a new project for Brahma Brews in Bengaluru, among others. 

Cohin in Goa | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The studio currently works only on custom orders and projects. “We are actively working with various organisations to incorporate this material in their projects as installations, lighting, outdoor furniture, fencing, cladding, etc. We are also exploring its usage in land and country borders as well as highway barriers,” says Roddam, who is now working on a line of outdoor furniture with the plant. As for maintenance, he says that unlike bamboo and cane, which require pre-processing to prevent insect attacks, Lantana camara has medicinal properties and a low starch content that keeps insects from eating and boring into it. “We recommend dusting and spray washing the products made of lantana with water once in a while. Since we are using it predominantly outdoors, we encourage our clients to let lantana transform and weather naturally.”

Elaborating on the challenges faced when working with lantana, Roddam says it is an unorganised sector, harvesting the invasive species requires permissions from the forest department “which we believe is unnecessary”. “In addition, for lantana to be a long-term architectural solution, we will require organisations working on the ground to train local tribes to harvest it the right way. It needs to be cut off from the root system to ensure that it does not regrow.”