Indian jail aims to be ‘world’s first green prison’

INDIA: South Asia’s largest prison Tihar Central Jail in New Delhi is hoping to become the first in the world to go green, by using renewable energy, recycled waste and cutting its electricity consumption.

The size of a small town, the vast complex in the west of the Indian capital has 10 prison blocks, covers 160 hectares (395 acres) and is massively overcrowded. Close to 11,500 inmates, most of them men, are currently crammed into its functional, barely sanitary cells nearly double the prison’s authorised capacity.

But the prison director-general, B.K. Gupta, wants to improve living conditions for the inmates, most of whom are on remand awaiting trial, and make it environmentally-friendly.

“We want to achieve international standards and more than that. It’s a small city here, we have a lot of open area,” said the former police officer, who launched an audit several months ago. NEW DELHI, AFP