Welcome to "Navankur"

The purpose of "Navankur"@Barkheda, Bhopal is to engage in livelihoods, leisure, living, learning and laughter (the 5 L’s) in such a way that the stock of human, social and natural resources is always rejuvenated. So that surpluses in water, food and energy comfortably sustain the community and the eco system in which the community wishes to live. The ultimate purpose is to create conditions of ‘plenty for all (members) and plenty for ever’.

Why Barkheda?

Small communes with similar intentions have been attempted for over a century all over the globe. We strongly believe that for such experiments to succeed, we need scale. For example water conservation is just not possible on a 2 acre (or for that matter a 20 acre) piece of isolated land. We believe that everything starts from just one thing….how we treat our water. For us to be part of the water cycle we need to treat and maintain a healthy watershed. So we have under one ‘management’ about 280 acres of watershed which we intend to restore, nourish and ultimately expand as we involve neighboring villages. We at Barkheda consider ourselves to be part of the natural ‘watershed’ and that dictates a minimum size, topography and geography and it also dictates how we live in that watershed. For example our traditional notions of absolute ownership of land may need a relook while we draw our boundaries of individual land ownership for a limited intent. Growth and regeneration of natural resources within the watershed needs to be owned and managed by the whole community-efficiently and effectively. We believe that our unique working model where members of community engage as ‘partners of purpose’ as well as ‘partners of profit’ shall evolve into a healthy structure where the whole and the part are both taken care of.

We believe that 'Navankur'(the community that is evolving in Barkheda) would attract all experimenters. Not necessarily likeminded but each one nurturing in his heart a common purpose and willing to co create a diverse community. We hope Barkheda becomes an open canvas for people to do what they have always believed is good for humanity….be it Natueco farming or bungee jumping.

We believe that the time for such an experiment is NOW….this wave of eco living has a few things going for them. For one, technology like internet can help connect all such experimenters seamlessly….secondly, people are more aware now….unlike in Gandhi’s times, alarm bells are ringing deafeningly now. Global warming, depleting oil reserves, pollution related diseases and rising consumption in China and India have all created a new urgency. The state of the earth is being discussed in every drawing room. People are already asking for a computation of earth’s capital that we are using for free: “What you need to measure among other things, is the services that natural environment provides. Cleaning the air, cleaning the water, the genetic background to rehabilitate areas… you can in rough ways actually measure it. The billions of rupees the forest provides for free that would cost you otherwise.”

The party is over. We have to start paying bills. Nature is going to demand that it be treated as a capitalist. At Barkheda we will begin to comply before being forced to.

Our Approach

At Navankur we will buy tractors and vehicles but, eventually run them on self-grown fuels. It will not buy-in petro-fuels but instead control vehicle use. It will mostly -but not exclusively- eat the food it grows. It will practice sober accountancy in water use. It will support people on its campus -children and experimenters- who will go on refining their practices and sharing them on the Internet. It will sell its surpluses in local markets as far as possible. Very high value produce like say the oil of vetiver, may justify transportation over a far distance. There is a difference between daily transporting Sydney oysters to Tokyo and flying in once, a small, efficient wind generator from New York to Chennai. It is one thing to take a plane to go away for a 4 week’s stay and another, to dash across the world capitals twice every week. A fuel efficient car can be a useful object, but a Hummer in your garage? It is these sensible choices the new environmentalist has to constantly, conscientiously make.

When this happens, a million neo-environmental islands dotted all over the world, can connect on the information layer, even as capitalism continues to thrive with a physical contiguity. Barkheda aims to be one such island. It will grow using the experience and knowledge of others; in turn, it will share its innovations and experiences.