Sanjay Shankarappa hails from the village of Javagal, near Halebidu, a center of beautiful sculptures of Hoysala period. His first 15 years of childhood was spent in Javagal which gave him complete experience about village life, people, culture, education and food. His journey of village life started when he was working in agriculture fields with his Grandfather using traditional tools, equipment and bullock cart. He learnt about growing different varieties of crops and plants like Ragi, Sunflower, Jowar, cereals, millets and Sugarcane. He has also grown different types of vegetables and has sound knowledge of growing horticulture crops like Coconut, Betel nut, Magnetos, Turmeric, Citrus fruits, Banana, Papaya and traditional medicinal plants etc. He has also learnt preparing traditional village recipes from his Grandmother and has a great passion towards cooking especially using firewood. Has more than 25 years of experience in farming and village life.

Sanjay is also a successful entrepreneur. He started website development and digital marketing company Nispaara (www.nispaara.com) in Bengaluru in the year 2001. Nispaara has been creating some highly effective websites for National and International customers. Nispaara has generated million dollar business to IT and export manufacturing companies. Sanjay has a diverse taste in photography as he has dabbled in industrial photo shoots, travelogues, and bird photography.
Sanjay is a self-confessed traveler and his love-affair with the still images began when he started capturing distinct geographies in his camera. His images are well passioned and he has a long working relationship with many of his clients. Apart from his undying passion for agriculture, photography and nature, Sanjay has active interests in social causes too. He has been actively involved in numerous social initiatives like creating small libraries for village schools, the Grow Trees campaign, which strives for a greener, cleaner tomorrow for our future generations.

Champaka is a hard core technology expert and has proved her expertise working with clients from different Industry domains. Apart from technology she always wanted to try something exceptional. She has always dreamt of spending quality time with family and friends at nature’s best possible locations. Idea of building ChukkiMane coined when Champaka and Sanjay heard about similar thoughts from most of the like minded people. That’s how journey of ChukkiMane began.
Since the inception of ChukkiMane journey, Champaka has been actively involved in each and every aspect starting from planting variety of plants, watering each plant, selection of materials used for constructing environment friendly home, till the completion of ChukkiMane! Today we feel contented to spend time at this beautiful house built using naturally available stones, sand, wood etc. It’s the most happiest moment to cook delicious food from fresh veggies grown at ChukkiMane.
Want to explore Mother nature at its best? Visit ChukkiMane, our friendly and experienced tour operators make you feel at home!