Hyd will get 2nd Miyawaki forest on 25-acre land, says Stonecraft Group Founder Kirthi

India has lost 4.14 lakh hectares of humid primary forest from 2002 to 2023. The country is second highest worldwide, in terms of the rate of deforestation, which is at 6.68 hectares per year between 2015 and 2020. While the underlying reason could be either urbanisation or natural cause, the result is increase in temperature, greenhouse gases, pollution, and decrease in ground water level. Many global organisations and Indian environment forums are concentrating their efforts on promoting holistic sustainable development, one major focus sector being construction. Though the construction industry is roped into adopting green methods, more developers should follow suit to make green building mission a success, says Kirthi Chilukuri, Founder and CEO, Stonecraft Group. This group grew to fame as the biophilic developer, and eco-realtor who introduced the largest Miyawaki forest in Hyderabad. Woods Shamshabad is the city’s first layout project surrounded by 4.50 lakh trees, 150 native plants, 126 native fruit and flower trees, and a natural habitat for 141 species of birds. Chilukuri speaks to Bizz Buzz about the launch of phase-2, which will be home to about 6.50 lakh trees, and the growing interest among property buyers to invest in green residential projects

How did you get the idea of growing a Miyawaki forest around your residential project?

From the last 14 years, I have been a real estate agent selling others’ properties. I saw the gap in the market offerings of eco-friendly realty projects. Most of them promise greenery but it is mostly basic plantation that is actually available at the property. For us, greenery means forest. That is the reason behind launching Stonecraft three years back and introducing the phase-1 of Woods Shamshabad.

What was the process behind creating the forest belt?

This city does not have an expert who is well versed in the know-how of creating a Miyawaki forest. There are people in Bangalore, but when we tried to reach out to them, we were not convinced with their method of consultation, and that for obvious reasons did not work out for us. So, we hired former forest officers. For two years, we carried out research on the kind of plantation to be used and the method to adopt. With these forest officers and architect’s help, Stonecraft successfully created the self-sustainable Miyawaki forest. The forest grows 40 feet in two to three years, while in traditional method it will take 10 years. As we have to grow native trees only in this method, we found about 180 varieties from that we were able to procure 130, so that in the long run they become self-sustaining. In phase-1, from 60 acres of land 18 acres is forest with 100 units sold out already for constructing residences. In the second phase, there is about 100 acres of which 25 acres is forest, and 150 individual units sized 1,800 to 3,500 sq yd will come up for sale soon.

What is the benefit of investing in eco-friendly projects?

We purchased a farm land, converted it into a layout, and carved a forest around it. If we are to be rated by the council for green buildings, our project would be way above Platinum. Unfortunately for layouts there is no IGBC certification. One of the benefit a buyer can look forward for while building a house is that if they want to do farming we support them in terms of creating a kitchen garden. The other major benefit is that when one enters the layout they do not feel they are in Hyderabad because of the greenery. The temperature difference is less by three degree compared to outside.

How is the land priced here as against in other layouts?

The price here will be around 10 to 15 per cent expensive. To give an example, when we started creating this layout, we were selling at a given price inside the compound wall, while outside the price was slightly lesser. Today, inside the compound wall the value of the land has appreciated more than double while outside, the property value is hovering around the same price that was quoted then. The price appreciation value of Woods can be compared against all other regular plots as regular layouts are available across the city but a layout with forest is not present anywhere.

A project can be considered eco-friendly only when the residential building is also built on the lines of green construction methods. How will you ensure that is adopted by the buyers?

Basically, who have bought land at Woods Shamshabad love the nature. We have given them guidelines on construction of the house so that they can live in harmony with the forest around. We have also constructed a brick plant at the site. In Pondicherry we get a specific variety of brick called as compressed earth block, we have set up a plant to manufacture these bricks. We have informed all buyers to use that brick to build their houses, which leads to…one is, less carbon footprint, and secondly, maintains the temperature within the house. The soil used to make these bricks comes from the land we excavated to create the forest. Instead of wasting that soil we are converting that into bricks.

Most of the times, land developers are concerned about the lack of infrastructure while building layouts in these parts of the city. Has the government worked on providing the infrastructure needed for development?

Talking about connectivity, this project is 11 km from the mouth of the airport, while the entry point is 16 km from Hyderabad airport. Hence, the social infrastructure is well developed as it is in Shamshabad. Moreover, we help local villages by getting the basic roads done if required.

Tell us about the uniqueness of phase-two…

Phase-two is in the drawing stage right now, we will launch it in the next two months. It will come up on the same lines of phase-one but we will improve it from the learnings we had earlier. In our project we do not waste the drainage water. In olden days, the drainage lines were connected to pits and from there it was diverted to the forest. Our forest acts as a rain water harvesting pit as its below five feet from ground level. The water from 60 acres of land goes to 18 acres of forest and gets absorbed into the ground level. So the water level has increased drastically. When I say learnings they also include how plantation can be done better, roads can be laid better, water management, soil and infrastructure management can be done better.

What is the category of customers that is keen on investing in eco-friendly projects?

Someone who likes greenery and likes staying closer to nature will buy or they will at least express interest. In all the aspects there are different categories from which a per cent of people will express interest. For example, in the group of HNI’s there will be 15 to 20 per cent people who like to invest here, out of 100 software employees there are 30 to 40 people wanting to buy, and out of 100 retired people almost 50 invest in such properties. In all the possible fields there are people who like living closer to the nature.

What is your plan for this year?

We have four to five projects lined up for this year, it is too early to talk about it in the media. We will continue with similar plantations in the projects we take up going ahead. Our vision is to do more biophilic projects and communities, and try to be sustainable as much as possible in terms of projects, use of local materials, reuse water, and tapping solar energy.

What is your opinion about the green building residential projects coming up in the city, and the amount of related raw materials available in the market?

Going forward everybody has to go towards this direction in a positive stride. Are there buyers… yes there are buyers who would whole heartedly invest to live in a green eco-sustainable layout or building. Everybody has to start in some or the other way and include green measures. We will be taking up green projects only in future. Coming to the raw materials available in India, compared to Europe and the US, our market just started 20 years back, so we have a long way to go in bringing more number of eco-friendly building construction materials to the market. Different types of materials still has to come in.

What are the policy interventions needed to fastrack this segments growth?

Currently, there are no incentives. However, if there are incentives rolled out, the developers who are developing eco-realty projects will pursue more such projects and contribute towards net zero vision of the State, and Central government.

Is this industry facing a scarcity of skilled experts, architects, engineers, workers for the widespread of green building construction?

In any emerging sector there will be a paucity of talent and skilled workers but, the sector is in the upward curve, so the talent pool is gradually rising as they are getting the opportunity to work. We also contribute in growing the talent base as we develop more eco-realty projects.