GO GREEN – India’s Futuristic Villages.

So, what idea of a green village do I have? The idea of green building that I have in my mind will have farming and tourism as its main income source for the people living there. Now, the presence of farms in villages is quite self-explanatory but how tourism you ask?

Well, the green village that I have in mind breaks almost all stereotypes about Indian villages. There are holiday packages for trips to the countryside of countries such as United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, etc. So, why not we develop our villages to be green and attract tourists. It doesn’t necessarily require a monument or some amusement park to do so. And there should be some distinction between a village and a city, otherwise, we will end up having another one of those cities with massive traffic, noise and what not.

So, for this, we need to have a list of important amenities that need to be in an ideal village and list of amenities that shouldn’t. The first few things that come to the head are hospitals, schools, storehouses, etc and not necessarily industries in every village, especially in those villages that can be developed into tourist spots.

Resorts are one thing that villages should have if they plan to attract tourists. Besides if there is a river or a lake, even that can be used to enhance the beauty of the village. And in any case, one very important thing that villages should have is skill development hubs. Basically, this hub should help the youth of that village to train and get recruited in the industries or resorts depending on the blueprint of that particular village.

For example – the youth can be given training about the etiquette to follow when you are a receptionist, waiter in a resort or they can be trained to become a fine masseur for the resort. This will enable people to get jobs and earn it worthily. While those students that decide to study further can get admitted into colleges which I think should preferably be in cities. First of all, every building in the green village should be a green building. We should plan our buildings to become completely off the grid projects, in fact, in some cases, we should try and sell the extra electricity produced by a specific building to the electricity hub. This can be done by using solar panels, insulated walls and age-old architecture of ‘jaali’. Even if the cost of all this is high, it can yield quite a positive result during the operational period of the building.

Other green aspects should also be considered during building these buildings. Heavy plantations of trees must be there in the villages to justify the literal meaning of green village. Hospitals must be far away from any known, nonmobile noise source. Also, apart from all this, importance must be given to good irrigation of the available farming land and fight drought. We should also focus on new ideas such as to put the solar panel over the canal so that we can save the excess land utilization, also provide green electricity to nearby villages if of course, they are not completely independent as far as energy requirement is concerned.

So, the prime aim remains, that our village should develop but not at the cost of exploitation of environment and resources. We also make sure that everything in the village is well-planned with technical aspects. We use rivers, but not at the cost of water exploitation, we use land, but not at the cost of soil pollution, we require energy, but not at the cost of carbon emissions, so as a co-citizen, it is our duty to make sure that we come with some ideas to implement, to develop our villages whilst respecting the nature.