How gated communities in village panchayats can be a voice of sustainability

A look at Thiruporur taluk

Siruseri hails the visitor with a wave, impersonal but heartwarming. The Sonallur reserve forest announces the arrival of Siruseri panchayat, tall trees resembling excited onlookers at a welcome parade.

The real Siruseri — one that hides behind half-truths — cannot be understood till you scuff your tyres and shoes through it. It presents nature in the raw, globalisation through technology — think SIPCOT IT park — and an interplay between the urban and the rural.

With its gated communities, Siruseri village in Thiruporur taluk has pronounced shades of a commuter town, one primarily serving an IT workforce, but latches possessively on to its pastoral charms. In Siruseri the IT hub, expect to be greeted by goatherds gathering their herds and residents washing clothes around waterbodies.