"Our body is essentially soil and water. The quality of soil and water determines the quality of our food, our bodies and our lives. Every one of us must become conscious of this. Restoring soil health is not an act of generosity. It is an act of survival. We owe it to the next generation. May we not fail our children." – SADHGURU
This quotation of Sadhguru, the visionary mentor, philosopher and guide, is a source of guidance for the billions of people across continents. Ashwani Khurana, CEO, Karma Lakelands, is one such Green Warrior who firmly believes that “ we have all collectively contributed to the destruction of natural resources and are paying for it with atrocious levels of soil, air, water pollution .” He is one of the few entrepreneurs who would go an extra mile to take stock of things and work tirelessly to improve the surrounding environment and quality of life, taking initiatives one by one as small baby steps. Ashwani, the dynamic CEO, Karma Lakelands, says, “One of the biggest takeaways from the coronavirus that has dismantled all our lives is that we should not mess with nature. Today, the need for responsible living and making our lifestyles sustainable has never been greater. How do we achieve in our time-stressed, fast-paced lives is a million-dollar question”.
Right from his school days, Ashwani had been a nature lover, deeply interested and attracted to the greenery and plantations all around. His fascination towards bountiful nature turned into a passion and full-time commitment to pay obeisance to Mother Earth with the influence of Nek Chand, the world-famous creator of the Rock Garden in Chandigarh. He is perhaps one of the single most brilliant minds behind guiding and inspiring his team about the regenerative, sustainable environment. Promoting the plantation of saplings that will be trees of the future is another unique idea promoted by Ashwani. He emphatically states that “we utilise disposable plastic to plant seeds. When they turn into mature saplings, they are either planted by staff and volunteers or passed on to the Give Me Trees trust of the famous Peepal Baba for social forestry.”
A few pioneering initiatives at Karma Lakelands that need to be emulated by several Corporate and Resident Welfare Associations, policy makers include Bio-composting of biodegradable waste, Organic-agro, Rainwater Harvesting, Recycled water use, solar energy, Kitchen, plastic and E waste segregation-management, Eco Bricks and a No Horn policy. If we shifted to zero waste lifestyles & garbage segregation at source, this overload of recyclables into landfills, thereby creating mountains of garbage, can be minimised. Ashwani feels that “It is time we start treating waste as a resource and apply segregation to proper use.” Around 2.6 lakh trees have been planted in Karma Lakelands approx 300 acre Golf course cum resort for achieving the goal of low carbon footprint. Solar panels have been installed in Klub Karma parking to produce clean, green energy during the day, besides providing shade to visitors’ car parking. The campus facilitates a green cover with clean fresh air, besides natural shelter for birds, bees, butterflies and an explosive variety of flora & fauna. The compost used for soil enrichment is a collection of plant clippings or pruning mixed with cow dung and sewage(treated as liquid gold) from the villas. This mixture of biomass with sewage triggers and expedites the decomposition by raising the temperatures of composting piles from 50 to 70 degrees Celsius, eventually keeping the place smell free while keeping the vicinity free from flies & mosquitoes. An Organic Agro initiative, along with a mini dairy farm having A2 milk producing cows, goats and hens within the premises, works in tandem with an in-house nursery and bio composting yards that handle over a truckload of biomass and 100,000 plus Litres of sewage a day.

They call this process- From night soil to soil energiser.

Another pioneering initiative of Karma Lakelands undertaken in 2020 is the Bamboo Forest Initiative. The uniqueness here is that this entire forest will eventually be nurtured entirely by recycled water from the abutting McDonald's Restaurant & therefore there will be no load on the ground or fresh water. At Karma Lakelands, another notable initiative is to SAY NO to all kinds of single-use products, esp plastic. To several employees and visitors' delight Ashwani, the founder and CEO, personally drives to work or commutes on campus either on an electric scooter or bicycle. He sometimes indulges in the luxury of driving a golf cart while conducting his personal guests or visitors. His whatsapp status reads “ at war against litterers, honkers, smokers & suckers 9 of straws). While he often picks up irresponsibly thrown litter, the guards respond to sight and not sound. The entire Karma Lakelands campus is a no-horn zone. Ashwani informs that all Kitchen waste is sorted and used either for feeding farm animals or for making organic compost. E-Waste such as old TVs, computers, Electrical items, and Battery cells are given to a company called Earth Sense Pvt. Ltd., which is well known for responsible handling of hazardous waste. Dry waste, including cardboard boxes, dry food packaging containers, glass bottles, paper, plastic, rubber, etc, is also handed over to responsible recyclers rather than allowing them to reach landfills via the municipal handling systems. It is time that we all learn from the initiatives by Ashwani Khurana, who has been instrumental in creating the Earth Sense initiatives. He feels that right from childhood, if we inculcate good habits among our children, over a period of time, they will grow as responsible citizens of this planet. We should aim for nothing should go into the landfills via the municipal waste management system. Segregating waste will help keep the environment clean and green, indeed rightly so!!! In the coming years, we will need more Ashwani Khuranas who are selflessly setting an example for the coming generations. The time has come to question ourselves whether we would be leaving behind an inhabitable planet for our future generations??

To sum up, Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, rightly said that “Earth has enough for everyone’s need and not Greed”.

By Yogesh Sood