In 2016, a landscapist called Musthafa PA bought several acres of barren laterite quarry land near Calicut International Airport. Nobody understood why. Eight years later, there are 2,000 trees, eight flowing water sources, two swimmable ponds, a Miyawaki forest, a bamboo grove, and three mud-built habitats where guests come to learn what a landscape can become when someone decides to believe in it.
There is a specific kind of courage required to look at exhausted, abandoned land — land stripped of topsoil by quarrying, laterite exposed, no water, no shade, nothing growing — and see not what it is but what it could be. Musthafa PA, an entrepreneur and tropical landscapist from Kerala, had this vision when he bought a parcel of degraded quarry land near Calicut International Airport in 2016. His friends and neighbours were baffled. The land was arid, spent, of no obvious value to anyone.
Musthafa had spent his professional life as a landscape expert, understanding the relationships between soil, water, and plant communities in the tropics with the depth of someone who has studied them both academically and practically. He saw, in this apparently exhausted land, the latent capacity of the laterite soil to support a forest if given the right conditions and enough time. He began planting.
Eight years later, Greenara is an oasis. Over 2,000 trees and fruiting plants of remarkable diversity. Eight flowing water sources, two of which are large enough to swim in. A Miyawaki forest — the Japanese dense-planting technique that compresses decades of succession into a few years. A bamboo grove. Flowering plants, medicinal herbs, fruit trees, and the extraordinary biodiversity that returns to a landscape when chemicals are absent and the soil is given back its structure. The groundwater has recharged. The birds have arrived. The dragonflies are in the ponds.
In 2023, Musthafa’s family joined the project. The farmstay opened. A documentary about the journey — directed by his daughter, tracing his steps across the eight years of restoration — screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala and won the award for best documentary writing at the Kerala Short Film Festival. The story of Greenara is, in the most literal sense, a film-worthy story.
The Farmstay
Greenara operates with complete clarity about what it is and what it isn’t. The Airbnb listing addresses potential guests directly: “You won’t find the usual party luxuries or extravagant accommodations. We mostly welcome people who are interested to observe, learn, and enjoy the flora and fauna that’s been evolving in the farm every day.”
This is not a hedge or an apology. It is the most honest description of a farmstay that any operator could provide, and it attracts precisely the guests who will love it: nature lovers, slow travellers, people who want to understand what a landscape can do when it is listened to rather than instructed.
There are three habitats, accommodating up to sixteen guests at a time.
The Habitats
The two Mudhouses each accommodate two people comfortably — built using traditional mud construction techniques that keep the interiors cool throughout the year without air conditioning. Walls of earth, packed and shaped by hand, breathing with the heat of the day and releasing it at night in the way that only natural materials can. Each mudhouse is its own quiet world, surrounded by the forest that Musthafa built from nothing.
The Community Area is a spacious rammed earth structure capable of hosting up to twelve people — a gathering space, dining room, reading room, and the social heart of the farmstay. Rammed earth — soil compacted in layers between wooden forms — carries the same thermal intelligence as the mudhouses, and the same connection to the landscape it emerged from. A curated library of books occupies one wall. Board games are available. The open-air dining area adjoins it.
No air conditioning anywhere. No WiFi distractions at the level of intrusion that changes a place. The habitats are ecological in the most integrated sense: built from the land, cooling with the land, designed to make you pay attention to the land.
All guests have access to the entire farm during their stay — the ponds for swimming, the waterbodies for sitting beside, the forest paths for walking, the nursery where Musthafa’s plants are propagated and sold.
The Team
Greenara is a family-and-friends project of real depth. Musthafa — tropical landscape expert, educator, entrepreneur, researcher — is the founder and, when present, the most compelling guide to the land. His wife Shabja and her team run the kitchen. His daughter Haneena is part of the daily management — the documentary filmmaker who traced her father’s journey is also the person who ensures the farmstay runs with warmth and care. Kamal — Musthafa’s right hand — and Abdul are the operational anchors.
Shihab, an agro-ecologist, food forest expert, educator, and permaculturist, is part of the Greenara Life extended team. An environment architect from MIT, Manipal, and Anna University — currently the Chairman of IIA Malappuram — brings structural and architectural thinking to the project. This is not a farmstay run by a single family with limited knowledge. It is a project assembled from multiple disciplines, united by the shared conviction that the land at Kumminiparamba deserved a second chance.
The Food
Authentic Malabar-style meals prepared by Shabja and her team are served daily at the community dining area. The cuisine is the food of north Kerala’s Malabar coast — one of the most distinctive and celebrated culinary traditions in India, shaped by centuries of Arab, Persian, and Portuguese trade and the extraordinary produce of the Western Ghats hinterland. Beef roast, avial, banana blossom preparations, rice and fish curries — the farm-to-table feast that is served as part of the tropical walk is one of the defining experiences of a stay at Greenara.
The farm itself contributes to the kitchen: tropical fruits from the orchards, herbs from the medicinal garden, vegetables from the kitchen plots. The meals taste of the land they came from because they literally came from it.
The Tropical Walk
The guided tropical walk with Musthafa — when he is present — is the centrepiece of the Greenara experience, and one of the most extraordinary educational encounters available at any farmstay in India. This is a walk through a landscape that Musthafa created from nothing, led by the man who created it, explaining every decision, every species, every water source, every technique. He speaks about the wisdom and forethought of everyone who has ever planted trees in barren lands — a category that now includes himself — with the generosity of someone who wants you to leave with the knowledge to do the same.
Workshops are also part of Greenara’s offering: pottery, plant propagation, and various programmes in ecological understanding. The nursery on site sells plants and planting materials to guests who want to take something of Greenara’s practice home.
Why It Stays With You
A guest at Greenara described seeing Mr. Musthafa’s effort in the farm — how painstakingly he invested time, money, and energy in bringing back a barren abandoned laterite landscape to the lush green mini-forest it is today. The sound of water falling into natural ponds. Dragonflies and fish in clear water. All of this not away from Calicut but minutes from the city, on land that was a quarry less than a decade ago.
Greenara is, in the end, proof of something — and that proof is why it stays with people long after they leave. The proof that damaged land can come back. That two thousand trees, planted with intention on exhausted soil, will create water sources and bird populations and swimmable ponds. That a vision held long enough, with enough dedication, becomes real. Musthafa knew it when nobody else could see it. The landscape is now the evidence.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Kumminiparamba, near Calicut International Airport, Malappuram District, Kerala (approximately 22 km from Kozhikode city centre) Website: greenara.in Booking: Via Airbnb (search Greenara Calicut) · Also via direct enquiry through the website Instagram / Social: @greenara (search Greenara Kerala)
Founder: Musthafa PA (tropical landscape expert, educator, entrepreneur) Kitchen: Shabja (Musthafa’s wife) and team — authentic Malabar cuisine Management: Haneena (Musthafa’s daughter) · Kamal · Abdul Extended team: Shihab (agro-ecologist, permaculturist) · Environment architect (MIT/Anna University) Established: 2016 (land acquisition and restoration) · 2023 (farmstay opened)
The Forest: Over 2,000 trees and fruiting plants · 8 flowing water sources · 2 swimmable ponds · Miyawaki forest · Bamboo grove · Medicinal herb garden · Fruit orchards · Nursery (plants available for purchase)
Accommodation: 3 habitats, maximum 16 guests — 2 Mudhouses: 2 people each · Traditional mud construction · No AC (natural cooling) — 1 Community Area: up to 12 people · Rammed earth construction · Open-air dining · Curated library · Board games
Meals: Authentic Malabar-style cuisine · Farm-to-table · All meals included · Community dining Experiences: Tropical walk with Musthafa (guided farm tour) · Swimming in natural ponds · Farm-to-table feast · Pottery workshop · Plant propagation sessions · Board games and library · Nature observation
Note: No conventional hotel amenities. No party infrastructure. Designed for people who want to observe, learn, and connect with nature.
Check-in: 2:00 PM · Check-out: 12:00 PM
Getting There — Calicut International Airport (CCJ): approximately 5–8 km — around 15–20 minutes by road. The most convenient arrival point in India. — Ferok Railway Station: approximately 10 km — around 20 minutes by road. — Kozhikode (Calicut) Railway Station: approximately 22 km — around 40 minutes by road. — From Kozhikode city centre: approximately 22 km — around 40 minutes. — From Kochi: approximately 220 km — around 4 hours. — From Bangalore: approximately 350 km — around 6 hours. — Coordinate exact approach and arrival with the team on booking — the property is in a rural area of Kumminiparamba, near the airport.
Nearby — Calicut Airport: 5–8 km · Kozhikode beach and city: 22 km · Beypore (historic port and boat-building): 15 km · Kappad Beach (where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498): 20 km · Wayanad hills: 80 km · Kannur: 90 km
Best Time to Visit: October to March for the most comfortable temperatures and clear skies · November to February for birding (winter migrants to the Western Ghats foothills) · June to September for the monsoon — the forest in the rains is at its most extraordinary and the ponds are fullest · April to May for the pre-monsoon, when the fruit trees are at their most productive
