Peepal Farm was started—by its founders Shivani, Robin, and Joellen—to help stray animals roaming around the village they called home, Dhanotu, a small hamlet near Dharmshala, Himachal Pradesh.
Where do these stray animals come from?
Wild animals live in the forest, but dogs ,cows, and pigs are not wild. They have been domesticated by us. They cannot survive on their own, and so they cling to the outskirts of human settlements and are often considered ‘pests’, eating farm produce and causing road accidents.
Compassion towards animals has been ingrained into our community since time immemorial, be it in the Panchatantras, teaching morality to the masses using animals figures, or the simple ritual of feeding the strays as incarnation of the different gods.
Like the Peepal tree which takes root, and dismantles existing structures, we subvert the cultural status-quo to foster compassion and good work.
We are a group of people with one goal: doing good work. It’s our understanding that physical pain is objectively bad. So for us, helping alleviate physical pain is an objective good, especially for those who can’t help themselves.
Peepal Farm is a stray animal rescue, a vegan organic farm, and a low impact farmstay. It is the home we have built in the Himalayan Foothills to accommodate injured and recovering stray animals, people who want to do good work, and an organic garden to provide a little bit for all of us.
Instead of putting in a swimming pool, we built a cow shed. Instead of a media room, we have a clinic. Instead of having master bedrooms, we made rooms for those who want to come here and experience a simple, sustainable, and purposeful life.
We believe that every action for survival has a suffering footprint, especially any act of consumption. So, we believe in mindful consumption, and making our survival purposeful by doing good work, which for us is alleviating physical pain.
