Interesting piece from ultra-soy-infused Buzzfeed on how a village founded by white expatriates is an environmental and ecological paradise. At first I thought it was a joke, but it appears to be authentic.
The opening teaser was what threw me:
"While urban Indians like me run our own home into the ground, the 50%-foreign community of Auroville has turned barren land into a lush forest."
Founded by hippies, the community is only 50% foreign these days. She interviews Johnny Allen, an Australian who moved to India 50 years ago.
The village was originally a parched wasteland (perhaps thanks to the French and British):
"When Johnny arrived in 1971, he found a terrain so barren, so scorching, that fisherwomen from the closest village had to tie plastic bags around their feet to cross the sand with their catch. Between the ocean and the next village, where they got the best price for fish, there was exactly one tree. They would pause there for shade before blistering onward."
The author (Indian herself) notes the contrast:
"I joke to Johnny that if India is still habitable 50 years from now, he’ll be one of the people to thank for it. It’s a joke, but it also isn’t. Six of the world’s ten most polluted cities are in India. Delhi, our capital, and Mumbai, where I live, are tarring children’s lungs. Forests are being cut down to clear paths for highways around the country, and very few Indians, including myself, can bring themselves to care about it in a sustained way.
But while urban Indians like me run our own home into the ground, the 50%-foreign community of Auroville has successfully reforested 5,000 acres of land and turned barrenness into a lush forest..."
There we have it, an honest declaration that Indians don't give a crap (pun intended) about the environment.
Perhaps this is a good reason to not let massive numbers of them into other countries, where they can continue to over-produce children and turn the forests into slums.
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