Smart Living by Sustainable Community’s Initiatives in the Historic Town of the Himalayas—Shimla

Abstract

Shimla often referred to as the summer capital of British, is a unique historic town that demonstrates smart living for the context. The local communities are key for the sustainable initiatives taken up by them over the years, strongly underpinned by religion. Shimla has the challenge of being environmentally sensitive, rich in biodiversity and steep land gradient. The city took shape with British establishing Shimla, as the summer capital; earlier it was a cantonment base with few villages. With altitude, the gradual changes in the environment are reflected by the local communities a unique feature of this historic town. Shimla developed as administration capital, continues to nurture the socio-cultural strength of the local communities and that is strongly depicted in their lifestyles and cultural spaces. The chapter enumerates changing nature and role of the local communities catering to the needs of rapid urbanisation and development especially in the recent past and how that has got translated in the ecology of the place integrating the conservation and planning perspectives in the context of sustainable development in the Himalayas; drawing upon interdisciplinary approaches linking with the approach to smart living at large.