Carbon Positive Village In India: The Village with the Carbon Positive Tag

Amid the growing debate of how to protect and preserve our environment, India has crossed another milestone. Phayeng village in the Northeast Indian state of Manipur has been hailed as India’s first carbon positive village. This carbon positive village in India is an inspiration to many communities and societies across the planet. Any village with carbon positive tag means it is reducing and offsetting carbon emissions in the environment. Today, we will understand how it was able to do so and what made it achieve this goal.

What Is Carbon Positive?

Governments across the world are working hard to make our climate sustainable and make people aware of different aspects of environment friendliness. One such concept is Carbon neutral. It is a state that occurs when net greenhouse gas emissions are equal to zero. In simple words, there are negligible carbon emissions in a particular place. Going beyond this concept, is the idea of carbon positive. It means making additional ‘positive’ contributions to the environment. 

Carbon positive means reducing and offsetting more emissions than released and taking other positive actions towards restoring our environmental sustainability.

Becoming Carbon Positive includes a variety of activities such as:

• Stopping deforestation;
• Reducing the use of fossil fuels to zero;
• Deriving all energy from renewable sources; 
• Offsetting more carbon than it has been released. 

The Village of Phayeng

India does not lag behind in the case of environment friendliness. In Imphal West district of Manipur, Phayeng village has become India’s first carbon positive settlement. This means Phayeng village sequesters more carbon than it emits, slows the collection of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere and nullifies the effects of climate change.

Phayeng village is a scheduled caste village of Chakpa community of the Northeast Indian state of Manipur. It is home to 660 households in Manipur.

How was Phayeng able to become a Carbon positive village in India? 

Phayeng has been able to do so by using its lush community-managed forest to develop itself. It became India’s first carbon-positive settlement by amplifying community spirit among the villagers.

Phayeng village is surrounded by three densely forested hillocks with fruit trees at centre and a stream flowing through it. The whole environment is lush-green. However, doing so was not an easy task. In the 1970s and 80s, it was a dry and denuded village. From there it has been resurrected through the sheer determination of its residents and funding under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC). It is a central scheme to support adaptation to climate change impact in various states. 

What is the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC)?

The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) is a scheme launched by the Central Government of India. It was launched in the year 2015-16 to support concerted adaptation activities that mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. This scheme will give 100% funding to the activities which are implemented in project mode. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is appointed as the nodal implementing agency for these projects.

What Next For Phayeng Village?

As part of the carbon positive village project, Phayeng will get a grant of Rs 10 crore in various phases. This will facilitate the programmes of afforestation in the catchment of river Maklang that flows along the village. This amount will also be utilised for 

• Creation of water bodies
• Introduction of climate change-proof varieties of crops
• Replacing firewood in the kitchen with cooking stoves 
• An indigenous knowledge centre in the village. 

Most of these works have already been started. 

What Can The Rest Of India Learn From This?

Phayeng has set an example for the country. With a population of 1.4 billion, India can contribute a lot towards the Planet Earth. However, there are some lessons that can be drawn from this incident.

• Community spirit is foremost is foremost in restoring the environment. When everyone comes together, then only a change can take place.
• The Government of India needs to recognise more such villages and help them with proper funding and assistance.
• Renewable energy should be the way forward. The more the population is dependent upon non-renewable sources the more harmful it is for the environment.

We hope that you liked the article on Carbon positive village in India. Keep reading our articles to get more knowledge of various entrance tests, recruitment exams and other such information.

Check out CUET Entrance Exam Details here	Get details on REET as well.
Check details of STSE Exam	Check out UPSSSC Exam Calendar as well.
Here are the details of TNPSC Exam Date	You should know about CUET Sample Paper.

Carbon Positive Village In India FAQs