No electricity, no internet, no LPG: This 60-acre Andhra village is home to just 17 families. They live in mud houses, grow their own food and follow a spiritual way of life

We live in a time when life without mobile phones, internet, and modern facilities feels nothing short of a nightmare. But in today’s fast-paced world rampant with innovations and development, there lies a quaint hamlet in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh where technology still hasn’t planted its roots in its soil. Kurma Gram village, spanning across 60 acres, is one such place where the residents have traded contemporary comforts for a traditional, Vedic lifestyle, embracing a slower and simpler way of life.

All about Andhra Pradesh’s Kurma Gram village

Kurma Gram village, nestled in the picturesque hills of Hiramandalam, is approximately 60 km from Srikakulam and nearly 8 km from the Sri Mukhalingam shrine of Lord Shiva. The farm was started by Nanda Gokulam Goshala Trust in 2018, as per the village’s official website. The primary goal was to replicate and follow spiritual, eco-friendly, and sustainable practices to solve multiple problems faced by the modern world, like pollution, health problems, psychological disorders, and addictions, to name a few.

Inspired by Vedic scriptures, Kurma Gram village is inhabited by only 17 families, comprising approximately 85 individuals. The residents here live in houses constructed with eco-friendly materials including mud, stones, bricks, wood, and limestone. No cement or iron has been used. Interestingly, there’s no electricity in the village, and the people simply light earthen oil lamps at night, illuminating the whole hamlet.

Unique features of Kurma Gram village’s homes

Some other fascinating features of the village are that you cannot find any gas stoves or cylinders in their house. Only firewood or cow-dung cakes are used for cooking. Behind every house is a small patch of cultivated land where residents grow vegetables, flowers, and other plants, producing their own food through natural farming. Meanwhile, instead of chemical-laden soaps and detergents, they use natural soap-nuts.

Stepping inside the house, the layout instantly grabs attention, with the centre featuring a small, open mini-well, as the houses don’t have any tap water connection, as per a report by The Hindu. There are 4 rooms inside a typical home, each serving a unique purpose - one is dedicated to prayer, another serves as the kitchen, while in many homes, one room is used for storing harvested crops. Do you know the villagers even weave their own garments through handlooms here instead of purchasing them from stores?

Education in the village

In terms of education, the Kurma Gram village does not adhere to the traditional schooling system. Children here are taught Vedic knowledge, scriptures, and languages such as Sanskrit and Telugu in small and open spaces called Gurukulam. According to The Hindu, one of the teachers here is a former Hyderabad resident. Attracted to the life of simplicity, the B.Tech graduate left the city and quit his IT company job to teach the pupils.