Our Story
Pannai is Tamil for farm. We took that literally.
Everything here started as something else — a bare acre, a pile of dead tyres, a family farm that had never had a dog on it. None of that is a marketing story. It is just what happened, in order.
The land
Before, and after
The mango and tamarind were already here — you cannot install thirty years of canopy. Everything under them is new.
The upcycling story
2,950 kg of tyres that were going to be burned
India generates more end-of-life tyres than it knows what to do with. Most are burned or buried. We took 2,950 kg of them, cut them, painted them and set them into the ground as 12 play installations — the first play landscape of its kind in the country.
The blue and yellow isn't a mood board. Those are the two colours a dog sees most clearly — so the park is legible to the animal using it, which is not a claim most playgrounds can make.
Built for a dog's real senses
The colours are for the dog, not the photo
Dogs are not colour-blind, but they are dichromats: they see blues and yellows clearly and struggle to separate reds and greens. Paint a jump red on green grass and the dog is working from shape and shadow alone. Paint it blue or gold and it simply sees it.
That single fact set the palette of the entire park — the gate, the trail, the bunting on the boundary fence. The green and red pairing you'll see on some fenced zones is for the humans, and it's used where the dog doesn't need to read anything.
Two facts worth a paragraph
- Dogs see blue and yellow most clearly. That is why the rides are painted blue and gold, and not why they look cheerful.
- "Pannai" is Tamil for farm. The name grounds this in one specific acre in Seekanapalli, not in a brand concept that could be anywhere.
Eco credentials
What the farm does when nobody's visiting
None of this was built for a website. It was built because running a farm badly is expensive.
2,950 kg of tyres
Kept out of a landfill or a burn pile and turned into twelve play installations — the first play landscape of its kind in India.
Solar
The farm runs its lighting and pumps off a solar array rather than the grid.
Bio-digester
Waste is processed on site instead of being trucked away.
Rainwater harvesting
The monsoon fills the ground it falls on, which is why the mangoes are the size they are.
CSEB blocks
Compressed stabilised earth blocks, made from the soil here, in place of fired brick.
Miyawaki forest
A dense native plantation on the boundary, growing faster than a conventional one would.
The wider farm
The park is one acre of 100+
Divine Groves runs to 100+ acres of mud roads, mango and tamarind swathes. It is open to every visitor for long-leash walks — not reserved for overnight guests.
Who runs it
Sthairya Stays & Experiences LLP
Paws Pannai Retreat is a Sthairya Stays & Experiences LLP property, alongside Bevu Social Farmstay next door and SSEK in Kanha. Small group, three properties, one habit: build on land you actually live with.