Department of Environment, Science Technology & Climate Change

Eco village is an emerging concept still in the process of being developed. Through the Ecovillage Concept, Department of Environment, Science & Technology, Government of Himachal Pradesh intends to demonstrate a model of environmentally sustainable development in active collaboration with village people that reflect their concern and respect for the environment. Environmentally sustainable and ecologically oriented eco villages shall be focused towards developing low impact lifestyles that reduce the “ecological footprint” by as much as 50% of the base assessment from launch of the scheme.

Himachal Pradesh is a small Himalayan state having a population of 67 lakhs (Census 2011). Nearly 90% of the population of Himachal Pradesh lives in rural areas and the agrarian economy is largely sustained by the Himalayan ecosystem and its natural resources. Various socio-economic and environmental changes are threatening these resources and posing new challenges for the people of the state. The Eco Village Scheme aims to devise ways to build a resilient village community and developing their skills and competencies to deal with resource depletion, changing climate and related environment challenges. Village communities need to be made aware of the pressures on their available resources, the impact of their decisions on the environment as well as choices available to them for following a sustainable development pathway.

The endeavour will be to promote transformative action and achieve sustainable development through environmentally responsible and responsive practices in the area of water management, waste management, energy conservation, management of natural resources, climate change action and sustainable livelihoods. This approach will not only help those stakeholders who are working to implement sustainable community development programmes but also will set benchmarks for others to adopt and bring a radical change in thinking process of the communities at large in the State, especially in inculcating environmentally responsible behaviour.

Vision

To demonstrate villages as models of sustainable development based on environmentally responsible individual and collective action for reducing human ecological foot-print and through judicious use of natural resources.

Objective of Scheme

This scheme is developed with an aim to ensure sustainable development in an organized and integrated manner. The programme endeavours to sustain prosperity in villages, that is built around sustainable use of the key natural resources of a village, through the adoption of low-impact practices that result in water security, food security and livelihood security for the village communities.