Discussing NSR Green Woods: A Self-Sufficient, Eco-Friendly Township In India

Raghava Rao Bellamkonda from NSR Ventures talks about the NSR initiative, discussing the concept, the challenges and how it became a home for many.

Committed to providing eco-friendly and self-sustained living, NSR Ventures led by Raghava Rao Bellamkonda, gives its residents a home that is close to nature and sustainable. In addition to implementing a greener lifestyle, this township also gives its residents a higher quality of living. Houses in the NSR Greenwoods project are built using mud plasters, hand made mud concreting blocks, compressed mud bricks, natural stones and other eco-friendly materials as well as utilizing several sustainable strategies including rain water harvesting with open wells, black and grey water recycling, organic farming, solar power etc.

Your inspiration for this project came from the time you spent at your home village. But inspiration alone wouldn’t bring about the kind of change that you have spearheaded. How would you describe the initial events that led to the realization of NSR Green Woods, and what are a few challenges that you have faced?

Yes, as you rightly pointed out, it is not a overnight journey. Though, I have passion and strong desire from beginning, to create my childhood reference of ” Truly Self Sustained Community”, but, I’m not fully technically qualified and not a subject matter expert, to jump start on my thoughts / dream. The initial few months, I spent lot of time on few case studies in sustainable development/living, to understand their success stories and also visited multiple places in and around Bangalore to have first hand information on what is going well for them and what are the challenges they gone through etc. In fact, none of their places have all round self sustained society, as I wanted to create. For example, some of them implemented a good water management system to achieve sustainable water source for their needs. Some have best practices in community farming etc.

In my journey, two major tasks to accomplish. One, developing of the Sustainable Infra. and, Second, on boarding of like-minded people, to sustain the practices for long time and for multiple generations. First part is relatively easy, as long as we can manage finance and have right ideas. But, second one is, most difficult part, working with people and their mind sets. My observation is, many projects / efforts will fail in this phase of ‘Self Sustainable Community development’. It is very important, to have all the people’s acceptance and their active participation. I should say, most of my energy and effort gone into this, to have bunch of people now, work as actively as me, to make this society, truly ‘Self Sustained Community’. One major influencing factor is, myself and my family started living in this society, as first family. That given good confidence and trust with others to follow and live in this society.

“We spent and continue spending lot of time in doing mocks and experiments to master this art at our place and pass on this knowledge to aspirant artisans / technical people to take these forgotten building practices to more places.”

How did others become interested in the project, to an extent where they wanted a similar home for themselves, since people, especially in India, have been preferring apartments over individual houses for a while now?

I see, people who born in India before 80’s, largely exposed to our ancestral way of living, particularly, living with Nature and sustainable way. In India, due to major of impact of globalization, the major shift in the life style happened in recent decades only. Majority of this generation, irrespective of their religion, region etc., believes that, their elders lived better life than us. But, they think, it is difficult for them to have similar life style, because, of their career aspirations and non availability of such villages / societies. Also, not many people offering them with overall solution ‘Self Sustained Community Living’. For them, these places are dream destinations, only for holidays.
We approached them, could explain them, why don’t we live that beautiful life every day basis, without compromising with our careers. We are not going to any remote places, but, just moving little away from the city, to a sub urban area. With that small adjustment, we can get much healthier and sustained living for us and for our next generations.

“In my journey, two major tasks to accomplish. One, developing of the Sustainable Infra. and, Second, on boarding of like-minded people, to sustain the practices for long time and for multiple generations.”

Considering all the natural materials you have used in the project, which ones would you say were the most challenging, in terms of use, maintenance or any other aspects, and why?

We use local soil and lime extensively in our construction process. Our invention isn’t something new, it’s how our previous generations used, these forgotten materials in the building construction in our olden days. One of the biggest challenges is lack of knowledge and skill on how to use these materials by the current generation. Second The other challenging part is, the construction methodology with these materials relatively takes, longer duration than normal cement based construction methods. People (all the stake holders) may not have the patience to wait longer to finish the buildings.

Maintenance wise, I don’t see any major concern with these natural materials, as long as, you follow the right proportions and methods. But, people have the mindset that, these are inferior materials compared to conventional materials like cement. But, it is not true.

It is, in fact, right design, right detailing, and, right methodology are very important, to avoid any performance issues with these natural materials. It takes some time, to absorb those tricks and tips, to master this art. We spent and continue spending lot of time in doing mocks and experiments to master this art at our place and pass on this knowledge to aspirant artisans / technical people to take these forgotten building practices to more places.

Ecological construction is not something everybody is familiar with. Most know about certain aspects, like solar energy or rain harvesting, but to build a house, let alone an entire township sustainably, is not a concept that many understand easily. Are there any common concerns that people who visit or get to know about the project raise?

Yes, all the people who visits our place, impresses with our thought process, the ambience we created here and the long term vision we have. But, people have concerns related to

distance to their offices being our place is in outskirts of the city.

generally these finishes are little rustic, so cleaning and dust accumulation related concerns.

since people are using framed structures for even low raise building in conventional buildings, and, forgotten load bearing walls without column structure, some people have reservations on the safety of the building.

since we have lot of fruit and herbal plantation in the common areas, some of them raise the point, how do we share the harvest?

Since we use lot of recycled or/and natural materials, people assume these ecological buildings are low cost constructions. But, the fact is, there will not be so much of cost reduction. But, material cost will go down and labor cost will be more, compared to conventional type. This is really good socio-economical situation. Moreover, we are saving many landfills and reducing carbon prints, by encouraging locally sourced materials.

NSR Ventures

The NSR team creates eco-friendly and self-sustained integrated living modules that ensure good health, peace, and other comforts through a completely green environment and making them affordable to the people. Green Woods is their first project in this direction, and has been undertaken with an aim to enrich the lives and experiences of Nature lovers and their families and guests by providing a natural getaway from the fast-paced world. It also aims at delivering round the year recreational facilities, thereby offering them a great value for money.