EcoVillage members are united by shared ecological, social or spiritual values. An EcoVillage is often composed of people who have chosen an alternative to centralized power, water and sewage systems. We see the breakdown of traditional forms of community, wasteful consumerist lifestyles, and the destruction of natural habitat, urban sprawl and over-reliance on fossil fuels, as trends that must be changed to avert ecological disaster. We see small-scale communities with minimal ecological impact as an alternative. More people are turning to eco communities as a viable alternative to urban life.
Although the EcoVillage would provide the basic infrastructure to live, work and play, our criteria for selecting the location was based on the fact that we still do need connectivity. Mysore is a growing city, with excellent connectivity by rail to Bangalore, which is the most eco friendly way to travel today. Road networks are also excellent, and a new airport is in the offing. Economically, it is a growing city and traditionally an institutional town. It is now a major centre for training, and many corporate firms have set up centers here. The Bangalore- Mysore corridor is a rapidly development area, with smaller satellite towns with economic, industrial and commercial activity being planned along this corridor.
Our search for a place to site this dream of ours ended with an almost-island of 100 acres. The place is flanked by a canal on three sides, very near to Bangalore Mysore highway, but enough in the interior to retain the peace and quiet of the paddy fields and the Ranganathittu bird sanctuary nearby. Located in the Cauvery basin, Birdsong is a fertile land, surrounded by paddy fields and a fairly large village nearby. The railway track runs along one edge and the canal borders the rest. A number of local and migratory birds are sited in the canal and the fields.
The vision is to create a community of the size of a small town or village, made up of individuals and groups of various sizes and social structures, which allows and encourages its members for sustainable living. The EcoVillage would recreate some of the culture of the traditional towns and villages where a lot of us come from, while trying to retain the advantages a city offers. |
