In a country as chaotic as ours, it’s always a distinct pleasure to witness architectural feats that lean towards sustainability. This is exactly the ethos that Rahul Mehrotra’s project ‘Haathigaon’ embodied and thankfully, even received admiration for. In fact, this government-organized project that saw them create a housing project for 100 elephants and their Mahouts (care-takers) actually won the urbanist/ architect/ educator’s firm RMA win a gold medal for sustainable architecture which is annually organized by the Italian university of Ferrara. A mahout starts as a boy in the ‘family profession’ when he is assigned an elephant early in its life. They remain bonded to each other throughout their lives. thanks to skill and a cultivated, longstanding relationship, the mahout is the sole person the elephant will obey; however, the keepers are not well paid– their salary totals about 5,000 rupees ($100) per month

Click Here To Read More