Chandra Shekhar Sharma’s Agra home is a thriving ecosystem of 400 plant varieties – keeping temperature inside his home 4 to 5 degrees cooler.
Forty years ago, now-retired banker Chandra Shekhar Sharma planted a bael tree in his courtyard. Being a lover of trees, plants, and the natural world, he kept up this practice, bringing new life into his house each year. Today, he has over 1,000 plants of almost 400 different varieties, and proudly calls his home a ‘greenhouse’.
He also doesn’t use chemicals to aid the plants’ growth, relying instead on kitchen waste and cow dung.
Living in this home has brought Sharma and his family a variety of benefits, besides the fresh supply of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. There’s clean, fresh air with plenty of oxygen and the general air quality has improved. The walls stay cool and their dampness has been reduced. In the excruciatingly hot Agra climate, the temperatures inside his house is always around 4 to 5 degrees cooler.
