God's Own Garden-Mawlynnong

Mawlynnong is a small village around 90km from Shillong, close to India’s border with Bangladesh. It is located in the East Khasi hills and referred as ‘God’s own Garden’.The village has won the status of being the cleanest village of Asia. There are around 600 inhabitants who are very conscious about the cleanliness of the village. The village seems quite pretty, especially in the monsoons when there is lush green all around, with waterfalls paving the way to small streams and flowering orchids at roadside. As it is in Meghalaya, the monsoon season is all over the year.

In 1887, Mawlynnong was severely affected by plague. Locals believed that this is happened due to the anger of any evil spirit and didn’t know what to do. Then some missionaries arrived and took care of the village and informed the villagers that the plague was not due to any evil spirit but because of the absence of cleanliness. The villagers understood the importance of cleanliness. They stated cleaning up the village and educating people. The villagers first worked on the drainage system. All the inhabitants started beautifying the place by planting saplings, flowery shrubs and trees. They were successful in transforming the village into Asia’s cleanest city. Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorts citizens to follow the practices of the residents of ‘cleanest village in Asia’.

Mawlynnong has been awarded twice as Asia’s cleanest city. Smoking and the use of plastic is totally prohibited in the village. You will find bamboo dustbins both side of the road at every small distance.

It is the responsibility of every person residing in the village to keep it clean and maintaining the beauty. They appointed three streets cleaner to clean the entire village every day. Whether it’s a heavy rain, they do their duty with full responsibility. Mawlynnong has a strict policy that no one is allowed to smoke or litter in the village. You are not allowed to take vehicle with you in the village. You have to pay a fine in order to doing so. The inhabitants are also conscious about the energy conservation. The light bulbs of washroom have sensors. Light automatically turns on when you enter and turns off when you exit.

Besides the beauty of village, the single root bridge in Rewai is also very popular. The bridge is made out of roots of old trees.