Letters to the Editor from Aurovilians

Dear Auroville Today team,

I have to say that while sitting here this morning over breakfast reading Auroville Today I felt appalled by reading the front page article “Growing timber and firewood for Auroville”. The amount of inaccuracies it contains was a real surprise, but the fact that an article goes out into the world of Auroville well-wishers, donors and potential donors without even checking it out with the Forest Group was unacceptable.

The first paragraph is misleading and does not contain the essence of that initial work, as it does not mention that actually the first pioneering work that was carried out on the plateau was not introducing the Work Tree, but extensive ecological restoration. This meant taking land that was highly degraded with little or no top soil, protecting and planting a myriad of species to create that precious shade and start breaking the cycle of degradation. The fact that the Work Tree was one of the few species that thrived is just a point in fact. To not mention the importance and reasoning why the Forest Group are concentrating their showcase work in planting and protectting the rare and endangered Tropical Dry Evergeen Forest (TDEF) also seems an oversight.

Stating that the “foresters have given no or only little thought to the timber and firewood needs of Auroville” is quite scandalous ! Over the years most foresters have consciously planted out timber and firewood either in designated areas or mixed in their plantations. A lot of work has been carried out experimenting with species and trying to understand what can grow. You also have to remember that timber needs good soil and high inputs to grow, and it is only now that the top soil is increasing and health returning to the system. Over the years, the foresters have been proud to offer their timber to Auroville, only to find that there is not a plausible market. Most contractors have moved over to other materials and though there are loyal Auroville units who regularly take from the foresters, a lot prefer to buy outside. Take a look at the Solar Kitchen and try and spot Work Tree. What you will see is Red Cedar and then ask yourself where that came from. Having said that, over the years it has actually been easier to sell the larger high quality timber within Auroville. It is the small and medium size that never gets used here and that has to be sold outside. I do not think this is a bad thing. On the contrary I feel it is positive, as it feeds into a market of local cottage industry carpenters a good, sustainable wood which they are happy to use. If they were not getting this wood what would they be using? The ramifications are large. So to make a suggestion “to ban all sales of timber and firewood outside of Auroville” is naïve. Also, for example, a large percentage of the firewood is large or damaged chunks that does not have a market within Auroville due to wood size or burning properties, so what would we do with that? It is the management and sale of these resources that have helped pay for the development of the Auroville forest.

The Forest Group mentioned in its notes that the Cyclone Thane wood is running low, which means that the work of clearing is drawing to an end. Having said that, Auroville is still sitting on a huge stock of well-seasoned, slabbed cyclone wood. This was collected by Torkil for the Auroville Woodlink (Torkil, Divya and myself), which comprises the fallen wood from communities, roadside and forests. Again Torkil, being skilled at selection, seasoning and storage, has created an amazing asset but when it was made available for sale not many Auroville units were interested in purchasing. Where else in the world can you get a good volume of completely sustainable wood?

The facts about casaurina should have been checked also, for to say “casuarina can easily be grown” is wrong. This tree is commercially grown locally mainly on clay soil with an intense water regime. In Auroville most of the forest land is red laterite soil where it does not grow. The type of soil it needs is also good for growing food, which is what our farmers do on the soil that Auroville has of this type.

The timber species you also suggested was not so well thought out.

On 30/12/2011 Cyclone Thane hit Auroville and reduced our tree canopy by at least 70%. It was mainly exotics and emergent species that fell. This definitely brings into question the plausibility of high resource input, stand-alone timber plantations. Since the region is prone to regular cyclones, the local flora has evolved within this matrix of factors and this was demonstrated by how the dense TDEF areas supported and protected themselves from the violent winds. So spacing out tall exotic or local species in a plantation makes them very vulnerable to storm damage.

In future, when publishing information about a field of work, please check out the facts with the people doing the work.