Back in 2016, I had traveled to Northeast part of India with my friend Sushovan during monsoon season. It was my 1st time traveling in this part of India.
North-east India is one of the untouched natural beauty for travel loving people. From mighty rivers to lofty peaks, this place has it all. This region is the wettest place on earth. People who want to explore the beauty of rain must explore this region during Monsoon Season in India (typically July to September). If someone wants to avoid rains, autumn and spring are good times to visit this region.
Around 90km from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, there is a magical paradise – Mawlynnong - a small village in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya near the Bangladesh border. On your way towards Mawlynnong, you can easily figure it out that you are near Bangladesh as you will start receiving messages like "Welcome to Bangladesh” along with international call tariffs. This small village, also known as ‘God’s own Garden’ has won the status of being the cleanest village by Discover India magazine in 2003 and later reinforced by National Geographic and UNESCO. It is also popularized by BBC on its articles (http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160606-the-cleanest-village-in-asia) in 2005, 2009 and 2016.
Being bought up in a small village in Howrah district in WestBengal, I was very curious to understand how they do it. I was trying to explore how this small village in one of the most remote parts of India make it different compared to its counterparts in other states of India. The village is enchanting, especially in the monsoons when there is lush greenery all around, with waterfalls paving the way to the small stream. You will be able to see a variety of flowering orchids dangling from the trees and plenty of hedges add to the beauty of the village.
Living Root Bridges
The most beautiful attraction in this region is just about 10-minute hike from the heart of the village. The living root bridge is a unique natural bridge. You can find how it grows in the following video.
These bridges are made out of thick entangled roots growing out of FicusElastica tree. Mawlynnong and Cherrapunji are counted among world's wettest places and hence the greenery, vegetation and forest cover (though depleting with time) is really dense. The Khasi people living in these forested areas over centuries discovered this tree which had several secondary roots growing out over ground level and they quickly turned it into a growing bridge, connecting two raised banks separated by one of the several streams within the area. These bridges are extremely sturdy and are made walkable by fitting smooth rock boulders through it. It can take up to 15 years for a bridge to become fully functional. There are several living root bridges which connect the small villages around. And for those in need of more adventure, there is a double-decker living root bridge at Cherrapunji, which can be reached after about 2-3 hour hike. We missed this due to limited time for our trip.
100% literacy & Cleanliness in daily habits passed on from generations.
Another important aspect of this village is 100% literacy rate. All the residents can read and write. I saw a few old ones reading English newspaper which is very rare in villages in other parts of India. All the young ones are sent to school and they are fairly fluent in speaking English. Children are taught right from the beginning importance of cleanliness, clean surroundings and every single person from the village participates in this initiative. That's where this village is different from others. It’s not something they have put up for tourists, it’s just their way of life, being followed from generations. Another matter of great significance is that each house has its own toilets and there are public toilets to offer as well. All the public toilets are kept clean and hygienic. Every house has a bamboo-made dustbin at its exit point. Plastics is banned here. Going further, every home has a separate structure for rain-water harvesting. Water conservation is being adopted by all the villagers. This village builds on its belief of green habitat.
Clean energy is the prime source
For energy, every house has a separate solar panel installed to harvest clean energy. The generation of alternative energy resource (mainly solar energy) has made this village self-reliant for their gross energy consumption. There are solar street lamps alongside the roads. This clean energy development reduces the load on the conventional electricity supply. The Solar Energy generation program is sponsored by Power System Operation Corporation Ltd in collaboration with The Energy Research Institute, TERI in association with Donton Solar House East Khasi Hills.
Influence of Christian Culture
The lifestyle is greatly influenced by the Christian culture. There is a church at the heart of the village. When I talked to some local people about how they become so conscious about the importance of cleanliness, they told me how cleanliness is included in their lifestyle about 130 years back when there is an outbreak of cholera. With no medical facilities in the village, cleanliness was seen as the only way to prevent the spread of disease. Christian missionaries helped them to recover from the outbreak. Primarily from their influence, people in this village understand that you can protect yourself from the plague (cholera) only if you maintain good hygiene, be it at home, with food, on your land, in the village, or for your body.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commended the effort of residents of Mawlynnong in his Mann Ki Baat in All India Radio for their mission of cleanliness for years and urged the people of India to take this as role model for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a campaign by the Government of India to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.
Incorrectly mentioned here about solar street lights.
The solar street lights were conceptualised and provided through CSR support by IDFC. TERI had nothing to do with this.