Most unusual villages in India, including a village of millionaires!

Precious Rongmei, TIMESOFINDIA.COM, OFFBEAT, INDIA Updated : Aug 23, 2022, 11:20 IST

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Most unusual villages in India, including a village of millionaires!

If you really want to get to know India, visit the villages. Having said that, there are thousands of villages in India. And we understand that visiting several thousands of villages is going to be a very difficult task, if one chooses to do so. So in the meantime, we can always pick the ones that are just a little bit more special than the rest.

Remember, what’s unusual and bizarre for you, might be quite normal for somebody else. With that in mind, let’s look into some of the most interesting and unusual villages in India.

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Mattur Village, Karnataka

(Representational Image)

Mattur, a village located in Shivamogga district in Karnataka, is where the majority of the residents use Sanskrit language in their day to day life. Even though the official language of Karnataka is Kannada, the residents of this village are comfortable with Sanskrit. If you are wondering what's so unusual about this, Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language that is no longer an actively spoken language. Some of the schools in India have Sanskrit as one of the subjects but the use of the language, anywhere else in India, is restricted to religious ceremonies. For the residents of Mattur village, this is their usual.

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Longwa Village, Nagaland

Longwa village is located in Mon district, Nagaland. It is one of the largest villages in the state, but that’s not why the village made it to the list. Nothing bizarre but the village chief’s house, also locally known as Angh or the King, sits right in the geographical border between India and Myanmar. If you are in the Angh’s house, you can be in Myanmar and India at the same time. The residents of this village have dual citizenship.

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Barwaan Kala Village, Bihar

After 50 long years in 2017, Barwaan Village had a baraat ceremony, a wedding after 50 years. This is the unusual yet true story of Barwaan Village in Kaimur Hills, Bihar. Up until 2017, no weddings took place in the village, for a very unnecessary reason. Unnecessary because this could have been dealt with a long time ago, long before this ever became something strange. For the longest time, this village was known as the Village of Bachelors.

Barwaan Kala village’s location was the main reason for so many unmarried men in this village. Before 2017, the only way to reach Barwaan village was to do a 10 km trek. This deterred many prospective brides and their families, but the villagers finally dug up a road that made the wedding possible.

<a rel="nofollow" href="#"title="Shani Shingnapur Village, Maharashtra"> Photo by:</a> Vishal0soni at English Wikipedia, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution Licence</a>

Shani Shingnapur Village, Maharashtra

A good chunk of our life goes in opening and closing doors and then we stress about whether we closed them properly, are we safe, etcetera. And then, there are the residents of the Shani Shignapur village in Maharashtra, who don’t have to worry about any of this. This village is popular as the village with no doors. The residents are true believers of Hindu deity Shani. The residents believe that whoever causes harm to another person in this village will bear the wrath of Shani dev.

Photo courtesy: Central Ground Water Board - Hiware Gram Panchayat

Hiware Bazar Village, Maharashtra

Not all people who live in villages are poor. This has been proven by the residents of Hiware Bazar Village of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. This village is popularly known as the Village of Millionaires. There are over 50 residents of this village who are millionaires. Sustainable development and community based natural resources management has helped many residents of this village. It is one of the model villages in India, all thanks to the conscious efforts of the residents.

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Shetphal Village, Maharashtra

Shetpal village is where you will see deadly cobras and residents of the village living peacefully, under the same roof. And no, it doesn’t end there, little children have cobras and their playmates. If you are building a home in Shetpal village, you are to make sure to leave a dedicated space for the cobra to reside! The residents of Shetpal village treat these deadly snakes as their family members.

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Khonoma Village, Nagaland

Khonoma is a success story of how an erstwhile village of hunters turned into India's first green village and a model eco-conscious village. Khonoma is one of the first villages in the state to announce a compete ban on hunting and illegal logging. The rules are pretty strict here. The communities living in Khonoma have joined hands and have taken up the responsibilities to protect the forest. These are called Community Protected Forests and are completely under the control of the community.

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Vellagavi village, Tamil Nadu

This small hamlet located near Kodaikanal is a sacred village where temples outnumber homes and the residents don't use footwear. In fact, anyone found wearing footwear gets punished. Vellagavi village is not connected by roads so trekking is the only way to get there.