Building in the hills has always posed challenges — the sloped terrain with uneven contours, lack of pucca roads, paucity of skilled labour and materials, and varying weather conditions with unpredictable rains and landslides. Earlier, houses were built of stone and mud, the only local materials available, while clay roof-tiles and ply for false ceilings came from the plains. In the Palani Hills, pine and eucalyptus were propagated by the British for timber, but these were not indigenous to the local ecology and were deemed invasive species.
Aside of the prohibition of stone quarrying in forest areas, there are restrictions on felling trees, borewell digging, and use of earthmovers and blasting rock. Kodaikanal-based contractor R. Sreenivasagan elaborates on building regulations in the township and surrounding panchayats, which are defined by zones such as Primary Residential, Economically Weaker, Mixed Residential, Multi-use zone (MUZ) and Agricultural, School and Prohibited. “You need a minimum of 3.5 cents (about 1500 sq.ft.) to build in a residential zone and 12.5 cents in a mixed residential zone. In a residential zone, a home can be up to 2500 sq.ft. and up to a maximum of two floors (Ground + 1).”
While laws are broken and stretched, building according to norms has become increasingly important to protect and conserve the fragile ecology of the hills. Homeowners and architects here are also adopting varied approaches to manage highly efficient systems for temperature control, water, electricity and effluent systems.
