A Self Sustainable Community (Human Settlement) comprising all the activity to a range of Human Scale within the neighborhood interdependent to government or policies.

1. Project Overview
Location : Galtre,wada Thane, Maharashtra
Land : 70 acres
Total built up area : 2400.65 sqmt.
Energy consumption reduction :57% reduction in energy
consumption compared to griha benchmark
Energy performance index (EPI) :37.5 KWH/m2/year
Renewable energy : rated capacity of solar PV installed on site is
39 kw
GRIHA provisional rating : 5 star
Year of completion :2012
Architect team :Biome environmental solution ,Bangalore
GOVARDHAN ECO VILLAGE.
It is based on the Vedic principle of living
In the ancient past, in Vedic times, life was focused on service
to the world and its inhabitants – both human and animal – not
their exploitation. This was the essence to leading a healthy
and sustainable lifestyle. With this positive attitude of nurture
and service, GEV showcases this profound principle of ‘simple
living, high thinking’, and its relevance in today’s world.
Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), frequently
encouraged his disciples to adhere to this principle by
developing farm communities for healthful and ecological living
At GEV you will experience a life that is socially, physically,
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually joyful, based on a
sustainable sensitivity to the environment.
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL
THESIS : 2016-17
SUMAMA
B.ARCH 5th Year
ROLL NO.
1267281026
ITMSATP, LKO
GOVERDHAN ECOVILLAGE
AT
PALGHAR (MAHARASTRA)

2. PURPOSE
Need
Civil facilities were required to house the community and several
facilities.
We had to minimize –
resource consumption
waste generation
overall adverse ecological impact
By implementing the Five R philosophy
 Refuse
 Reduce
 Reuse
 Recycle
 Reinvent
Objectives
 Preserve existing Vegetation/or plant new trees as per GRIHA
Norms
 Proper timing of Construction w.r.t. rains. Start after Monsoon
and finish before next Monsoon.
 Confine Construction Activity to only few select parts of the
Campus
 Erosion and sedimentation control
 Preserve topsoil and use it for Raised Bed Agriculture
 Waste segregation, recycle and reuse
CORE CONCEPT
Govardhan Eco Village (GEV) is a humble attempt to highlight
the importance of living in harmony with nature and using the
gifts that Nature and God have bestowed upon us to serve the
society by setting up a model farm community. Our aim is to
create aesthetical and comfortable structures for the residents
and guests, while not breaking the harmony with nature and
our immediate surroundings. You will observe in the process
how GEV has taken initiative to uphold the balance of
sustainability concept and community needs
SERVICES
PUBLIC
UTILITY
PRIVATE
SEMI-PRIVATE
GOSHALA
ZONING
Protecting existing
ecology:
Fences were built around the trees
and other important ecology
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

3. Smart Sourcing : To reduce the overall carbon foot print, 90% of the
materials were sourced from within 100 Kms radius of our facility.
Zoned Construction: Construction activity was not allowed to
spread all throughout the campus. It was restricted to only some
areas with all the brick production units strategically placed near
those areas to minimize transportation.
Mud is the essence :
Simple, Natural Mud was the key constituent of the construction material
POINTING
 Stabilized mud mortar
PLASTER
 In -toilets cement plaster
 Rest-mud plaster
ROOF
 Arch panel with mud tiles
 Steel
 Mangalore tiles (burnt clay
tiles)
FOUNDATION
 Pcc with stabilized mud.
 Stone masonry with stabilized
mud mortar.
 Concrete short pole (as bond
stone).
WALL : stabilized mud block
 MUD
 Quarry dust
 Lime
 Cement
DOOR AND WINDOW
 Recycled wood
Foundation
Stone masonry
with
stabilized mud
mortar & concrete
short poles (as
bond
stone)
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

4. Earthquake resistance
The GEV lies in the zone with a remote chance of an earthquake.
Conforming to the BIS norms, we have prepared earthquake
proofing methods to secure our buildings.
CSEB v/s Conventional Fired Bricks
Lesser amount of energy is consumed in preparing the
Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks as against the modern day
bricks used in
construction.
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

5. Assembled Arches
Advantages of Assembled Arch Panel:
 Saves cost on RCC
 Saves cost on plastering ceiling with cement.
 Saves wastes in plastering ceiling with cement as lot of
cement falls down during plastering.
 More strength and stability
Arch Panel being separately constructed (left) and then after drying being
put on the roof (right)
Natural Insulation
A sloped roof with double layer of Mangalore tiles with an air
gap between the two layers as insulation. It ensures that the
temperature inside the room is moderate as compared to
outside.
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

6. Illustration through the stages
Step-1 making brick Step-2 door and window
being setup
Step-3 raising the arches Step-4 collection of the
treated water
The Final Structures
Rammed Earth Homes for Farmers
Amenities block
Auditoruim,amenities, room
Training hall
Communal cottage
yogashala
Cob house – entirely
made of mud and straw
Innovation in method
The integrated development
approach gave rise to various
favourable by products
which synced into the sustainability
concept. One of the key innovations
was the re-use
of the construction waste material in
creating the Permanent Raised Beds
used in
cultivation of the rice crop and
vegetables. Recognising this effort,
Krishi sutra survey -
conducted by the Small Farmers
Agri-Business Consortium - has
listed GEV as one
of the top 100 agriculture innovators
in India, for extensively using this
technique.
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

7. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Purpose
The activities of the community in GEV require energy resources.
Located in the rural stronghold of the Thane district, energy is hard to
come by. Let us consider two factors here –
 Depending on them will cause a strain to our nation’s depleting
resources.
 The cost of procurement of resources was running high and
causing constraint into our budget.
Solution
To implement a sustainable and cost-effective method, to reduce the
dependency on conventional sources of energy.
The Alternative
Bio Gas Energy –Biomass is a renewable energy resource derived from
the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities.
Biomass does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as it absorbs
the same amount of carbon in growing as it releases when consumed as
a fuel.
Solar Energy –GEV has exposure to sunlight for most part of the year
and management identified certain unusable open areas to install panels
to harness solar energy.
Animal Driven Prime Mover –Bulls not only contribute in ploughing the
farmland, but also help substitute power requirement for couple of
processes, which we shall study further
Benefits
Ample availability of Food Waste: Apart from our own
kitchen waste, we have two free mid-day meal projects
within a radius of about 30 km. Together they cater to
lunch requirements of about 80,000 children a day. They
have a potential of providing about 1.5 tons/day of
vegetable waste and left over food. The biodegradable
waste, when allowed to decompose naturally, would lead
to release of methane, which is a much more damaging
greenhouse gas as compared to carbon di-oxide. Hence a
dual benefit of generating energy and curtailing green-
house effect is achieved.
Organic Manure: The left over slurry, after the removal of
biogas, acts as excellent organic manure in a very easily
dispensable form. Since in GEV we have a “zero chemical”
agricultural policy, this slurry is fulfilling the role of other
expensive organic manures.
The process
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

8. Biogas is produced from bio degradable wastes through a process
called anaerobic digestion, a naturally occurring process through
which organic matter such as manure, food waste, and crop
residues are stabilized by microorganisms strictly in the absence
of air.
During this process, some organic compounds are converted to
methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gases. This mixture of
gases is known as biogas.
The composition of biogas is 50 to 75 per cent CH4 and 25 to 45
per cent CO2. Like natural gas, biogas can also be used as a fuel
in power generators, engines, boilers and burners.
Storage
In practice, specially designed and insulated tanks are used to
facilitate the anaerobic digestion process under a controlled
atmosphere. These tanks are known as anaerobic digesters or bio
digesters.
The effluent coming out from the digester after the completion of
the digestion process is known as dig estate. Dig estate has
nutrient value and can be applied on and like manure. Dig estate
also has much less odour compared to stored manure.
plant Source of
biomass
capacity
Floating dome
type
Cow dung from
Cow Shed
30 cu.m
Fixed dome Food waste from
FFL
6 cu.m
Plant setup
A bio gas generator used on site
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL
Solar panels over roof

9. Waste management
Soil Biotechnology (SBT)
Water is an excellent medium for transfer, owing to its ability to flow
and carry solid matter with it. That solves the issues about waste
collection, but it creates a problem with waste treatment. Water is not
the best medium to decompose matter. However, research by one of
our researchers, Dr. Biplab Patanaik at IITB showed that Soil is an
excellent natural medium for decomposing solid wastes. His
breakthrough research at IITB showed that the best sewage
treatment system would be an integration of these systems
A system that uses water as a medium for waste collection and
soil as a medium for waste treatment. Such a system would
consume little energy and would integrate in a seamless manner with
the natural cycles of environment.
The Process
Soil Bio Technology
The SBT system consists of an impervious containment and
incorporates soil, formulated granular filter media, select culture of
macro organisms such as earthworms and plants . Combined grey and
black water from GEV cottages are collected and transported via
underground sewage network to a central
collection point.
Primary treatment unit: The physical separation is
accomplished in primary treatment unit consisting of
Equalization tank, perforated screen and gravity settling
tank.
The Secondary treatment: is combination of physio-
chemical and biological processes in an engineered
ecosystem. In this unit waste water is processed in an
ecosystem consisting of soil, bacterial culture and
geophagus earthworm, mineral additives and select plants.
Formulated natural mineral additives and biological cultures
are also included in the process in order to renovate the
wastewater to the desired quality.
The process by design integrates with the natural bio-
geochemical cycles of nature. Purification takes place by
adsorption, filtration and biological reaction. The process
operates in aerobic mode; thus eliminating possibility of
foul odour.
The processed water can be reused in gardening,
agriculture and support marine life. The capacity of the SBT
system is 30 KLD and operates in an 8hr/day cycle.
Collection tank Side view of the
plant bed
Water being
sprayed on the
plant bed
Collection of the
treated water
A sample of the
output. The
entire output at
present is
being used for
the vast
horticultural
needs in GEV.
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL

10. 100 % of treated water is being reused in horticulture. The
revenue from horticulture comes to Rs. 1.5 Lakh p.a.
The by-products from waste water treatment system based
on SBT are Biomass and Bio-fertilizer.
Biomass in the form of flower, fodder, fruit and fibre which is
utilised completely at GEV.
The bio fertiliser rich in organic and slow release minerals
are also utilised in horticulture.
ECO-VILLAGE AT NAUGARH, SIDDHARTHNAGAR THESIS GUIDE -
AR. PRASENJIT SANYAL