According to the Washington Post report, the Modi government is doing good PR for India’s G20 Presidency. Through this PR campaign, we got a chance to visit an eco-village.

The name of the village is Sagg Eco Village. The meaning of Sagg is nutrition, and this village comes under the district of Ganderbal, which is around 30 km from Srinagar.

The strength of our group is around 38, including our professor Khalid sir and research scholars. The distance from the place is around 8 km, and we had planned to go there by university bus. It is said that you become close to people through informal chatting, and it gives you the chance to know each other better. Something like that is happening in our tour also. People are singing songs, playing music, clicking pictures, and, most importantly, chatting with each other. Since it is our first semester, some students are still not opening up, especially girls and some boys. This type of event allows them to connect, and certainly, we are here to connect, not to impress.

We learned during the course of our journey that the location to which we were traveling is the residence of our three friends. One of them is guiding the bus driver. Our path is full of natural beauty. Kashmir is also known as the valley. That describes a low area of land in between hills, frequently with a river or stream running through it. Fortunately, Sagg is also situated on the bank of Sindh. On both sides of our road are the crops of mustard, apricot, peach, cherry, and almond. All of these are blooming now that the season has arrived, and each of these crops has flowers of a different color. These plants and trees were something I had never before seen in my life, with the exception of a mustered crop. Snow was still visible on some mountains.

When we arrived at the village, the first thing I saw was the name of the village written on a wooden board with the image of a hut. Imran, Yousuf, and Zulfikar, three of our friends, are astonished to see the receptionist, a fellow student from their class, speaking Pasto. We discover later that locals make up the majority of the workforce.

Most things are made of wood whether we talk about rooms, furniture, or cup. We have been served kahavah which is made by boiling green tea with saffron, cardamom, and other dry fruits. It is also a traditional Kashmiri drink. In the background, slow-motion music is playing, and some are singing. Two mams are our tour guides. One is franker and song lover and the other is more composed and to the point.

Since we are more in numbers that’s why we are divided into two groups. More people like to be with the first one. Here we saw, beautiful mud houses to live in, padao(where people seat and informally chat ), and Jirga(courtroom, where people discuss general and serious issues). A mud house which they named ‘chech’(uncle) is their first house while explaining why they named it? They say that it is a symbol of a joint family structure where the uncle plays a crucial role in the joint family. Many other important things are important in village life. They have tried to take close to Kashmiri culture. There is also an organic farm and fresh produces are grown on the farm and used in the kitchen here. Apart from this, the zero-waste concept is followed here. That is, nothing goes in the garbage. This promotes sustainable tourism. The whole area is spread over 1.5 acres.

Following the tour, Fayaz, the founder of the Sagg, engages us in a discussion, and we then have lunch and Lipton tea. They also provide other facilities like camping, trekking night stay, and season with schools, colleges, and universities on ecological entrepreneurship.

It was a good business idea because rich people want to live and spend their lives in an environment-friendly ecosystem, and they are ready to pay good money for this. Because rich people have more carbon footprints and are responsible for climate change. This type of activity gives them moral support.

Developing nations contend that developed nations have a moral obligation to contribute to and aid them in sustainable development at various climate summits, such as COP. because they are responsible for climatic destruction. The same argument applies in the context of rich and poor people. Poor people have no options, while the wealthy at least have a choice in how they want to live.