Dularia's vision is to be a safe and loving space for all of life to thrive...
Our Mission
To empower entrepreneurship & leadership in socio-economically disadvantaged communities
To be financially self-sustained through nature-friendly practices
To be a learning and demonstration centre for regenerative living
To preserve and foster indigenous wisdom
Cornerstones
Empowerment
Environment
Education
Enterprise
Our Story
Dularia was founded in 2018 by Dr. Sharmishtha Dattagupta after she spent four years volunteering with the Santal tribal community. During this period, she connected with the challenges they face as a socio-economically underprivileged community as well as the gifts they have to offer this world, especially their indigenous wisdom related to nature. Being a lover of nature, she founded Dularia on permaculture principles with the support of co-founder and permaculture designer from Israel, Mr. Yuval Leibovich. As Sharmishtha is a leadership coach by profession, she believes that true empowerment happens when people have a lived experience of their own capacity and are able to stand on their own feet. Thus, in Dularia, we are experimenting with two radical principles: first, the project is led and managed entirely by the indigenous community. Second, the team members do not receive salary; instead they receive support, coaching and training to become micro-entrepreneurs who generate their own livelihood through nature-friendly practices. Financially, Dularia is a socio-environmental for-profit enterprise, partially sustained by income from Sharmishtha's coaching venture Daana-nature.
Our Process
We started by regenerating the land in 2018...
we transformed what was once dead soil impacted by over 20 years of conventional rice farming using urea and pesticides into a thriving primary forest using regenerative permaculture techniques
...then we built our Earthhome...
using upcycled cement bags filled with mud from our plot, we built our cozy and gorgeous earthhome using the earthbag technique using zero cement. The roof was made in the traditional vernacular style with wood and straw thatch.
...and our glass-bottle kitchen and cafe...
with the wattle-and-daub technique using mud and bamboo, and upcycled glass bottles, we built our stunning kitchen which has a lovely play of light .
We started planting our food forest, veggie patch and organic rice...
using zero chemical fertilisers or pesticides, we have started growing and selling organic Gobindobhog rice, a traditional variety of Bengal. We're also planting a food forest with a large diversity of fruit trees including hardy native varieties that arrived on their own. We also grow seasonal vegetables and a large variety of greens!
and started offering exciting workshops on permaculture and natural building!
fulfilling our objective of being a learning centre for regenerative living, we started offering immersive workshops on natural building, permaculture, natural jewellery making and more...
Our members
Our collaborators
