The Green Map System has approved the Green Map of Gandhinagar designed by Gautam Naidu, a second-year post graduation student in Information and Digital Design at the National Institute of Design in Gandhinagar.

This is the first Green Map of the country which is available to the public. Earlier in 2002, Pune became the first city in the country to get a “Green Map”, which was later updated in 2003. But it is still not available to the public and cannot be found on the Green Map website. A Green Map is a locally made map that uses the universal Green Map® Icons to highlight the social, cultural and sustainable resources of a particular geographic area.

A Green Map identifies a sustainable way of living via mapping ecological resources, in a local context. Naidu said: “Officials of the Green Map System told me that several contents which I used in the Gandhinagar Green Map are unique and different from other Green Maps. Soon they will be including and featuring those contents in their books and resource sections on their website. Later on, the contents will be included in the international mapmaking tools centre, which is used by all green mapmakers.”

Rupesh Vyas, a senior faculty and coordinator for Information and Digital Design at NID, Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC), and the Gujarat Ecology Education Research (GEER) Foundation is also affiliated to this project.

He added that while there are some Green Maps which focus on beneficial natural and sustainability sites, there are also those which include problems impacting the well-being of the communities, such as toxic hot-spots and other sources of disfigurements.