Majuli was the first island in India to be given a district status.Here, bamboo homes ensure a low carbon footprint, while the residents take cleaning drives very seriously.
2. ‘Organise clean up drives’ — Yana, Karnataka
Yana in Karnataka attracts tourists with its rock outcrops formed from solid, black, crystalline karst limestone.
Despite heavy tourist inflow, Yana has maintained its status as the cleanest village in the state with regular cleanup drives conducted by the forest department.
3. ‘Sweep the area clean’ — Khonoma, Nagaland
To anyone who looks up to Asia’s first green village for a solution to sustainability, it will tell you ‘just plant more trees’.
You’d be surprised to know that the village was battling deforestation in the late 1990s, before the residents took it upon themselves to ban the cutting down of trees.
Every Saturday morning, schoolchildren across the village get to work, emptying out the dustbins along the paths.
4. ‘Use local building material’ — Nako, Himachal Pradesh
The village air is said to be so crisp that it hurts to breathe it in! Here, cleanliness is not an advice, it is an obligation.
Roadside garbage bins dot the streets and signs of ‘Keep Nako Clean and Green’ are frequent sights.
Additionally, buildings are made out of rammed earth, stone and other local materials to minimise pollution due to transportation.
5. ‘Build toilets’ — Mawlynnong, Meghalaya
Asia’s cleanest village has a small population that works hard to keep the surroundings clean.
To limit pollution, the village discourages tourist vehicles and one must walk on foot. Plastic is banned and it is a common sight to see groups of villagers sweeping the roads with teasel brooms.
Using local materials to build their homes helps the people of Mawlynnong reduce their carbon footprint. Toilets in homes and public spaces limit open defecation.
6. ‘Introduce solar street lights’ — Chitkul, Himachal Pradesh
The villagers have directed their efforts towards reforestation, organic farming, and eco-friendly practices.
They promote eco-friendly materials as alternatives to plastic, segregate their waste, replace traditional lighting with LED lights, and explore renewable energy options.
One of the boons has been the introduction of solar street lights.
The villagers ensure they are keeping their carbon footprint in check by:-resorting to wooden log homes instead of cement-planting more trees to increase the green cover-banning plastic bags and creating a waste disposal system
They have also developed a sewage system which has contributed to the model’s success.
8. ‘Plant more trees’ — Piplantri, Rajasthan
For the people of Piplantri in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan, the birth of a girl child meant “bad news”.
But Shyam Sunder Paliwal encouraged the parents of newborn girls to plant trees and nurture them to celebrate the birth of the baby.
A few years ago, due to the increasing number of white marble mines and limited tree cover, water was scarce in the village, health problems were rampant, and there was no food to eat.Paliwal’s idea has created a revolution.