Indian cyclist turns hobby into passion to protect environment

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – Indian biker Ankit Arora has turned his cycling hobby into a mission to spread a sustainable way of life in sync with the local environment.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on the eve of World Cycling Day, which is being observed on Friday, Arora, 32, said the cycling has helped him to connect with people to know different cultures. He has cycled some 21,000 kilometers (13,048 miles) covering 1000 villages in 15 provinces over the past four years in India.

"It's not too fast, it's not too slow. People notice me easily on roads with my cycle and luggage, out of curiosity, they come to talk to me about my cycle journey and within five minutes of knowing me they invite me to their homes and locality and share their culture," he said.

He said this interaction has helped him to learn about the sustainable culture of farming, mud house making, eco-toilets, traditional food practices, and art and crafts. He is now propagating sustainable living across the villages.

According to Arora, in 2017 when he was on the roads for three months, he realized the advantages of the minimalistic lifestyle of villages and worked with the farmers and their families to know about local techniques.

The cyclist has now established the eco-village “Innisfree Farm”, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

He said whatever he learned during this cycle journey about organic lifestyle (natural farming, mud house building, eco-toilets, and traditional art and crafts from each state), he wanted to propagate and implement in a community village.

"I was staying with a family in Bangalore during COVID-19. When the family came to know about my dream of setting up an open community eco-village, they also decided to leave the city life of Bangalore and move to a village nearby. That's how we found this land in Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, which is very near to Bengaluru," he said.

The village now hosts two mud houses and one wooden house along with two eco-toilets and organic vegetable farming.

- Poor cycling infrastructure

"Also, we have made two big ponds for rainwater harvesting. We have used total mud and our plastic waste to make our mud houses which I had learned during my cycle journey through various Indian states. We also collected many alcohol bottles from the nearby water bodies which were thrown by the tourists and used them as bricks in our mud houses which also adds up a decorative medium on the walls," he said.

He, however, lamented that sports infrastructure including cycling was still poor in the country. He said a proper mindset to establish cycling as a mainstream sport is also lacking in India.

"Only some big sports are popular among the common men of India. But cycling, in the last 7-8 years, has been adopted by people as their lifestyle and fitness regime across the cities," he said.

"People are investing a very good amount to get a new cycle for themselves as well as a couple also,” he added.

He said if not as a sport, cycling should be propagated as an alternative mode of transportation to reduce dependency on fuel depending vehicles.

"Taking inspiration from other countries, we can also implement this idea of the cycle to work in India and help curb the increasing traffic and pollution to certain limits,” he said.

He has so far covered half of India and now expects to cover another half soon to visit more villagers and interact with artisans and farmers to work with them.

"I want to make more eco-villages like the one I already have made Innisfree Farm. I like to learn and make more mud houses and ecovillages in different parts of India wherever I'm finding a good place and community to work with,” he said.