StudyDesk Scholarships
About the fellowship
Sadhana Forest is an international volunteer community in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, built around ecological restoration, veganism and compassionate living. Its fellowships offer a chance to live and learn inside that community rather than to visit it, and the one-year Sadhana Forest Fellowship is the shortest of its residential tracks. Fellows take part in every part of community life: planting and caring for trees, maintaining water-harvesting structures such as bunds, swales and trenches, helping in the Children’s Land and the Tea Hut, cooking and cleaning, and welcoming visitors and volunteers. Training covers vegan community living, natural learning and ecological restoration methods.
Readers should not confuse this fellowship with the two longer tracks on the same official page. The Environmental Leaders Fellowship runs for two years and sends fellows on to rural centres in India, Haiti, Kenya and Namibia, and the Sadhana Forest Scholarship runs for five years. The fellowship described here is one year, at Auroville, and it is the one this article covers.
Who can apply
- Be a citizen or resident of India.
- Be 18 years of age or above.
- No prior experience is required. The organisation asks for dedication, compassion and a willingness to learn and serve, not for forestry qualifications.
- Be ready for the community’s shared principles for the whole year: a 100% vegan diet, complete abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, drugs and other intoxicating substances, and life in a gift economy where participation, food and accommodation are offered freely.
The fellowship is a residential commitment. Fellows are expected to take part in all aspects of community life, including physical work, cooking, cleaning and hosting visitors, and to follow the community’s vegan lifestyle and sustainable living practices. Anyone looking for a part-time placement, or for a placement that can be combined with other work or study, will not fit this programme.
Benefits
Selected fellows receive free food and accommodation for the duration of the one-year residential fellowship, along with a small monthly stipend. The stipend amount is not published on the organisation’s fellowship page or in the programme listing, so this article states no figure for it; treat any number quoted elsewhere as unverified unless the organisation itself confirms it. On completion, fellows receive a certificate and a personalised recommendation letter, and may be invited to continue serving at one of Sadhana Forest’s centres.
One caution on dates. An older cohort listing for this fellowship gave an application deadline of 15 March 2026 for a fellowship running from 19 April 2026 to 18 April 2027. That cohort has started, and the organisation’s current page lists the fellowship among its current opportunities without stating a fixed deadline, while the programme listing shows it as always open. This article therefore reports no fixed deadline, but anyone planning to travel should confirm the next cohort’s start date with the organisation before making arrangements.
Documents needed
The programme listing asks for the following, all in PDF form:
- Curriculum Vitae
- Aadhaar Card
- PAN Card
- BPL (Below Poverty Line) ration card, your own or your parents’, if applicable
How to apply
- Read the fellowship descriptions on the organisation’s fellowships page and confirm that the one-year, full-time, residential commitment suits you.
- Apply through the programme listing’s online route: register or log in, navigate to the fellowship, and submit the application with the documents above.
- For details about the current intake, write to the organisation at the contact given on its fellowships page, fellowships@sadhanaforest.org, rather than relying on an older cohort’s dates.
FAQs
No. It is a service fellowship: a year of residential work in an ecological community, with food, accommodation and a small stipend, not a payment towards tuition.
No. No prior experience is required; the organisation asks for dedication, compassion and a willingness to learn and serve.
The organisation’s page says Indian residents may apply for any fellowship, and that the two-year Environmental Leaders Fellowship also welcomes international participants. This one-year fellowship is presented for Indian residents.
Not published in the sources checked. The organisation and the listing both describe it only as a small monthly stipend, so no figure is stated here.
Fellows receive a certificate and a personalised recommendation letter, and may be invited to continue serving at one of Sadhana Forest’s centres.
No fixed deadline is published on the organisation’s current page, and the programme listing shows the fellowship as always open. Confirm the next cohort’s start date with the organisation before travelling.
Verified 31 Oct 2026 against the Sadhana Forest fellowships page (one-year residential fellowship at Auroville; food and accommodation plus a small stipend; minimum age 18; Indian residents may apply for any fellowship; no prior experience required; shared principles of 100% vegan and substance-free life, gift economy and Seva; certificate and recommendation letter on completion; contact fellowships@sadhanaforest.org) and the Buddy4Study Sadhana Forest Fellowship listing (always open; Indian citizen or resident, 18 or above; food, accommodation and a small stipend; CV, Aadhaar, PAN and BPL ration card if applicable, in PDF). The older 15 March 2026 cohort deadline and 19 April 2026 start come from an older cohort listing and are reported here only as superseded; the stipend amount is not published in either source checked, so none is stated.
