Oil lamps are lit for the Theyyam
Earth mother India
Carol West sets off to explore India’s eco-friendly options, from village homestays to rural experiences that take her to the heart of local life.
Offsetting our carbon emissions, selecting hotels and resorts with carbon-neutral footprints and checking their sustainability philosophies: it seems that conducting an environmental friendliness audit is the prelude to travelling anywhere these days. If you’re part of the growing band of global nomads who like to holiday with clear consciences, Mother India has some refreshingly green surprises in store.
“We fight for the environment and local communities by adopting a local ethos wherever we operate,” says Jose Dominic, CEO and one of six fraternal owners of CGH Earth Experience Hotels, a boutique group of clean, green, healthy hotels that have been operating in southern India for more than 30 years.
“Over-consumption and the runaway destruction of habitats threaten our entire ecosystem, which is something we believe tourism must confront,” asserts Dominic, a leading advocate of Kerala’s magical backwaters as an international destination.
Paddling through the backwater canals of Kerala
So how does CGH Earth juggle controlled growth with environmental responsibility?
At its handpicked resorts and hotels, where celebrity guest Sir Paul McCartney proposed to Heather Mills and Richard Gere, Brad Pitt and Kate Moss have all enjoyed guilt-free rest and relaxation, heavy monsoonal rains are harvested, filtered and re-used around the grounds and in the staff kitchens. Bio-digesters and waste-treatment plants convert effluents into clean fuel while bio-gas plants recycle non-citrus food waste and cow dung into LPG gas that furnishes up to 15 per cent the accommodations’ energy requirements. Hot water is powered by the latest solar technology that harnesses free energy from southern India’s sun-filled skies. Anaerobic waste-water systems separate waste-water and oils from kitchens and the resorts’ Ayurvedic centres, producing thousands of litres of clean, clear water daily. Composting in the resorts’ organic vegetable and herb gardens is commonplace, with spinach, chillis, sweet, Lady Finger bananas, pumpkin, cucumber, beans, mangoes and more travelling zero kilometres from garden gate to restaurant plate.
The normally sealed world of a resort’s ‘back of house’ is proudly open at CGH Earth’s resorts, and all visitors are encouraged to walk through the establishments, check the figures and discuss environmental initiatives and concerns. The management’s philosophy is simple: guests have paid for the right to see everything and know what’s being done to nullify their carbon footprints.
The vibrant colours of India
On an organic level, homestays are gaining popularity in rural India – and not just with the backpacker brigade. Staying among rural communities opens travellers’ eyes to experiences that are invisible from high-rise hotels. Demand is growing for experiential travel and the baby-boomers, once some of India’s harshest critics, are turning into its biggest fans. At least that’s what Lincoln Harris of India Unbound is finding as he assists growing numbers of independent travellers.
“India is shaking off its low-budget, backpacking image, and people of all ages are enthusiastic, energetic and genuinely interested in a full range of activities. We work with some outstanding eco-friendly, sustainable rural properties,” says Harris, whose homestay properties range from ancestral estates to modest rural homes.
“The number of small, boutique properties is increasing rapidly,” explains Harris. “There’s a growing understanding of what Westerners enjoy, and they are willing to pay for unique experiences. Families are renovating houses and offering genuine hospitality that travellers find enormously enriching.”
Kandath Tharavad, Bhagwaldas' ancestral home near Palakkad
Whatever the star rating, getting involved at a local level in an industry that’s often dominated by big players is good for both guests and hosts. Cultural immersion is the homestay option’s big plus and, by stepping off tourism’s well-trodden path and staying locally, you’re getting to the heart of a place. Visiting a local temple at prayer time, taking chai at the village teashop or playing an impromptu game of the Indians’ beloved cricket, your stay becomes a series of personal encounters and brings you closer to discovering the essence of India.
Banyan Tours & Travel have been operating in India for the past 13 years, creating bespoke travel programs for couples, families and small groups of friends. Luxury comes in many forms, and the company’s careful alignment of clients’ needs with well-designed programs takes sophisticated travellers beyond five-star predictability, towards experiences that touch the soul.
“We are the single largest supporter of privately owned, personally run heritage and boutique hotels, homestays, camps and lodges – small places that employ local staff,” explains Jamshyd Sethna, founder of Banyan Tours. Most of these associated businesses have established trusts which, through tourist donations, provide local villages with infrastructure support such as local school improvements and well-building.
The potter works his wheel in the village near Kandath Tharavad
“It’s important for visitors to get some first-hand village experience to raise their own awareness of the reality of the situation,” says Sethna, emphasising that only by remaining uncommercial can rural experiences retain their authenticity.
The Kandath Tharavad, one of Kerala’s few ancestral homes, has kept its doors open since 1794 – for the past eight years, to paying guests. We’re welcomed graciously by the home’s custodian, Bhagwaldas, the great-great grandson of the original Kardath family, who were major landowners before the 1974 Land Reforms Act. Sipping a refreshing, chilled lime, ginger and basil juice, the businessman-turned-homestay-host outlines the reasons for sharing his home.
“Luxury homestays is a new business in Kerala and the high cost of maintaining the property led me to open it up to international guests. It also allows me to present a glimpse of the many unique aspects of rural life in southern India,” explains Bhagwaldas.
Originally the granary, our room opens onto a central courtyard with open breezeways and lush gardens; another was once the family’s strongroom, housing their cache of currency and gold.
Working the emerald rice fields of Tamil Nadu province
These days, investment is embedded in the local community, where a modest school has been substantially re-made thanks to the kindness of strangers. Financed by Bhagwaldas’ and Kandath Tharavad’s guests, the school has unadorned classrooms, a kitchen and washrooms: a cooked lunch of rice soup and vegetables is added inducement for 187 bright-eyed children from extremely poor local families.
Bhagwaldas takes us to the Saraswathy tea-stall in the tiny hamlet of Ramaserry, where we enjoy their renowned idlies: cakes of ground rice and lentils, fermented overnight, then steamed into deliciously light pancakes and served on banana leaves. Behind the counter, a young man pours sweet, milky chai until it foams in the glass.
In the village, a lean, elderly man in an orange dhoti spins an ox cartwheel that he’s fashioned into a potter’s wheel. Slapping chunks of rich ochre clay into the centre of the wheel, he deftly creates a terracotta cooking pot that he’ll sell at the local market for 25 rupees, around 80 Australian cents.
Village ladies in festival attire
Along quiet lanes, where hazy late-afternoon light softens the rice paddies and cones of silage, women gather at the well. Outside the weaver’s house, an elderly man holds a plaited bamboo basket between his toes, deftly threading and lacing palm strands before handing it to me. No money changes hands: all donations will be left in a box at Kandath Tharavad, to be distributed equally among the villagers.
At the other end of the sub-continent, Shakti Himalaya, Banyan Tours’ sister company, operates village walks and a mountain lodge in the remote Indian Himalaya. “Australians have really taken to village experiences in Kumaon, Sikkim and Ladakh, where they undertake private journeys on foot, by car or, in Ladakh, by raft, staying overnight in renovated village homes,” explains Jamshyd Sethna, founder of Shakti.
Walking from village to village, not as a tourist but as just another person has an inspirational simplicity that travellers seldom experience – however, with private guides, ensuite bedrooms, fresh local food and fine wines, creature comforts aren’t forsaken amid the solitude and serenity of the towering Himalayan landscape.
Shakti may be a small outfit but, by only employing locals, who are passionate about sharing their history and culture, it is endeavouring to make a big difference to village life. Taking things a step further, Shakti also works with The Leap, a UK-based organisation that sends graduates to work on community and conservation projects such as setting up water-harvesting systems, litter disposal and teaching, on six- and 10-week placements.
Staying close to earthbound experiences brings Mother India’s intoxicating blend, its colourful chaos into sharp focus. From our guesthouse, Costa Malabari in Kannur, a rope handrail loops down the steep descent to the Arabian Sea. This modest homestay is one of many throughout India where our generally-abstract notion of sustainability is an everyday reality. Food is prepared from local ingredients so there’s no unnecessary transportation; air-conditioning is a simple fan, neither towels nor bedlinen are changed daily; waste is recycled; staff are local and the establishment supports cultural diversity by ensuring that its guests experience the Theyyam, a grass-roots ritual unique to northern Kerala, in which the humblest of men is transformed, it’s alleged, into a god.
Merging tribalism with shamanism and Hinduism, this spectacular ceremony is performed by men at small kavu shrines in secret locations throughout Kannur. Created generations ago, when lower-caste families were prevented from entering Hindu temples, the Theyyam venerates its own pantheon of powerful gods and goddesses.
In the raw heat of night, we’re welcomed into the midst of a throng of families captivated by the unfolding drama. Chenda drums beat hypnotically as sinewy, dhoti-clad men, their bodies slicked with sweat, brandish wicker torches sending red-hot cinders spiralling into the inky blackness. Supported by two men, the god-figure Vayanattu Kulavan strides at an increasingly rapid tempo around the fire, brass anklets snaking around his legs, bells jangling menacingly. Under his exotic Theyyam mask, his mood ranges from malicious to benign and, in a trance-like state, he tests his power over the red-hot coals until the fingers of cool, white dawn diffuse the ritual’s heat.
Standing in line to receive the god’s blessing, I reflect that to observe and play a small part in the life of enigmatic India, while treading lightly on mother Earth, can only bring us all good karma.
Photography by Robert Muir / Imageink
Travelfacts
getting there
getting around
- Abercrombie & Kent, phone 1300 851 800 or visit www.abercrombiekent.com.au
- Adventure Associates, phone 1800 222 141 or visit www.adventureassociates.com
- Asian Bound Holidays, phone 1300 761 580 or visit www.asianbound.com.au
- Asiaquest Tours, phone 1800 144 738 or visit www.asiaquesttours.com.au
- Ausindia Holidays, phone 1300 146 342 or visit www.ausindiaholidays.com.au
- Banyan Tours & Travels, phone 02 9999 5270 or go to www.banyantours.com
- Creative Holidays, phone 1300 747 400 or visit www.creativeholidays.com.au
- Epicurious Travel, phone 03 9486 5409 or visit www.epicurioustravel.com.au
- Essence of Asia, phone 1300 365 355 or visit www.essenceofasia.com
- InterAsia Tours, phone 1300 133 001 or visit www.interasiatours.com.au
- Intrepid Travel, phone 1300 364 512 or visit www.intrepidtravel.com
- Natural Focus Safaris, phone 1300 363 302 or 03 9249 3777 or visit www.naturalfocussafaris.com
- On the Go Tours, phone 1300 855 684 or visit www.onthegotours.com
- Qantas Holidays, phone 13 1415 or visit www.qantas.com.au/holidays
- Ram World Travel, phone 02 9262 1661 or visit www.ramworldtravels.com
- Tempo Holidays, phone 1300 558 987, www.tempoholidays.com
- Travel Indochina, phone 1300 138 755 or visit www.travelindochina.com.au
- Travman Tours, phone 1800 338 007 or visit www.travman.com.au
- Icon Holidays, phone 1300 853 953 or visit www.iconholidays.com
- Wendy Wu Tours, phone 02 9224 8888 or visit www.wendywutours.com.au
- Wildlife Safari, phone 1800 998 558 or visit www.wildlifesafari.com.au
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