The outreach work of the Auroville Botanical Gardens

Since the late 1980s, members of Auroville’s Forest Group have been involved in large projects in India. Amongst the earliest are the works done for the Palani Hills Conservation Trust in Kodaikanal, reforesting large tracts of land. More recent and better known is the creation of the Tolkappia Poonga in Chennai, where a polluted and encroached arm of the estuary of the Adyar River was turned into a huge eco-park. It is now affectionately referred to as ‘the green lung of Chennai’.

Auroville’s environmental outreach work is widening out. Pitchandikulam Forest Consultants, which was responsible for the Poonga, is continuing its work in Chennai, this time working up-river, and in other places in Tamil Nadu. Elsewhere in India, teams from the Auroville Botanical Gardens have been working to turn the estates of large Indian hotel resorts such as Mahindra and Hyatt, and campuses of companies such as Ashok Leyland, TVS Electronics and Zoho, into biodiversity reserves. More recent is their involvement in the restoration of thousands of acres of exhausted lime quarries in Tamil Nadu.

In environmental outreach work competition is virtually non-existent. Auroville’s level of expertise, knowledge and experience is much wider and more cohesive than what others can offer. A project typically takes 6-9 months for concept development, followed by 2-6 years to materialize the plans. All projects are turn-key – from defining concepts to landscaping to planting the species. The contract includes a maintenance period of one year and a guarantee that the trees and other plants survive the following monsoon; if they don’t, they are replaced.

Paul Blanchflower is one of the driving forces behind the Botanical Garden’s outreach projects. “We do this out of necessity,” he explains. “Our annual budget for running the gardens is around 40 lakhs per year. Auroville contributes Rs 3-4 lakhs, which covers around 60% of the costs of our educational projects. The remaining 40%, and the money required for maintaining the 50-acre Garden and the people working here, along with funds needed for development, come from the income we generate through working outside.”

The main objective of the Botanical Gardens is to promote the conservation of biodiversity. One of the ways they try to achieve this is through environmental education. Yearly, about 3,000 children from government schools in the surrounding area visit the Gardens to experience nature and develop an understanding of the wide range and diversity of the plant world. “Our education coordinators go to the schools to prepare the children. Afterwards, the children come here in batches of 20. We pay for transport and lunches and give them a day out. We also organize 3-day camps for the kids to experience the forests or visit nature reserves such a Point Calimere.” The team also hosts private schools and colleges on request, but those courses are not for free. “So it means that a good 100 days a year we’re receiving and educating children here at the Gardens.”

The outreach work

The Garden’s outreach work started about 10 years ago, when it got involved in beautifying the landscape around the Mahindra Resort south of Pondicherry at the request of an architect from Mumbai. “The architect was interested in vernacular architecture; we proposed planting indigenous vegetation species from the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF). It jelled. Initially, we were only going to plant the beach forest. But as they liked our work, we landed up doing the entire landscaping and planting of the gardens around the resort, 26 acres in all.”

Since then, the work has continued. At the introduction of Ray Meeker from Golden Bridge Pottery, the Botanical Gardens did the landscaping of the Hyatt hotel in Chennai. “Ray was doing the pottery garden, we did the rest, including all the TDEF planting.” That work took two years.

Another project was the landscaping of an empty, flat and undefined plot of 27 acres on the edge of the Kaluveli wetlands for a holiday resort. In this project, the landscape came first and the resort followed. The site was challenging. The soil was alkaline, the water table had a high salt content and during summer, hot, dry winds would extract all moisture from the ground and from the plants. Drawing on their experience, the Gardens Team planted TDEF species that are adapted to these extreme conditions. After two years the vast area was transformed into a lush landscape with perennial water bodies that provide habitats for local and migratory water birds. That the choice for indigenous tree species was correct was proven by the end of 2015, when unprecedented rains flooded the entire area for two weeks. All the plants were under two meters of water, but the indigenous species survived. The resort will soon be open to the public.

Also private companies approached the Gardens to beautify their campuses. One is Ashok Leyland who asked the Gardens Team to do something on the 160-acre campus of its Research and Development Centre in North Chennai. The Team is now working in three areas of this vast campus, planting native forests, building perennial water-bodies and thematic gardens. “It is an amazing opportunity to create ecologically sound landscapes,” says Paul. “Last year, a cyclone hit Chennai. We were pleased to see that the 15 cm of rain filled-up our ponds as planned. The gardens are only watered from these ponds.”

Another company, the software company Zoho in South Chennai, requested a full landscape master plan for its 35-acre campus. Some work on the ground has begun with the creation of a shaded walkway linking the existing buildings on the site. Rocks, benches and small ponds have been installed for the employees to enjoy as they move between areas or just to take a short break between work sessions.

The quarry restoration projects

If these projects are of direct benefit for the resorts and companies, the same cannot be said for the restoration of exhausted lime quarries located in distant areas. The client here is Ramco, a large cement manufacturing company and one of India’s leading business groups. “They have a commendable sense of environmental responsibility,” says Paul.

Ramco requested the Gardens Team to restore its exhausted lime quarries. “They are like huge open pits in the landscape, from which first the top-layer is called the overburden and afterwards the sedimentary or metamorphic limestone has been removed. Some quarries are only a few meters deep, others hundreds of metres and look like massive meandering gashes in the landscape. Each requires a different approach.”

The Team studied three different quarries and presented Ramco with a few proposals. “We put many possible usages in our proposal. Recreation is one of them, but as these mines are located in far away areas, this is not likely to have a big impact – perhaps in one or two places they could build a resort. Other usages are as a nature reserve, to restore the environment, and to create an ecosystem which is also of benefit to the people living in the surrounding villages.”

Last year the Gardens Team, in cooperation with Ramco’s own horticultural team, started pilot projects in two quarries to see what techniques can be used to reforest those areas. They planted over 60 native species on ten acres of the project and designed water bodies for places where there was insufficient overburden to backfill the pits. In addition to the familiar TDEF species, and to provide the necessary shade for the indigenous saplings to grow up, the team also planted non-indigenous species, such as Neem, Pongamia, Cassia siamea, banyans and Peltophorum pterocarpum, the Copper Pod Tree, to create a mixed forest. This mix will also contribute to enriching the very thin layers of topsoil.

“We are also experimenting with species that do well in granite hills such as you find around Chengelpet and Gingee. We hope they’ll also thrive on hills created with the overburden. We are trying out different types of ficus, some species from deciduous forests, and even some critically endangered species such as Hildegardia populifolia, a tree which is only found in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh and near Gingee. It is an interesting experiment, to see if those rare species can get a new home there.” The Gardens Team hopes that over the next years these projects will scale up in size as the potential for creating forests are enormous, even though the actual site conditions are difficult.

The Prosopis problem

“Ramco’s third quarry is particularly challenging,” says Paul. “ This one is a 4,000 acres site, located south of Madurai where the original natural vegetation – most of which has gone – would have been the Southern Tropical Thorn Forest. The mine there is only about 2 meters deep. After removing the overburden of 1 metre thickness they take out the kankar, a low grade form of limestone, which is also about 1 metre thick. The hole is then backfilled with the overburden, and a kind of undulating landscape is the result, which is currently covered with Prosopis juliflora, an invasive thorny bush.”

This area has a very low rainfall. It is dry-land agriculture, with one crop a year, and for the rest of the time the goats run over it. Fencing is an issue. “We created a thorn fence around 100 of those 4,000 acres, but in no time it was burnt down in places by the local goat herders. It showed us that we have to include social forestry in our planning. If we can develop projects with the locals and come up with techniques where they can see the benefits of having forests around water bodies, we could end up with a multi-use ecosystem, not only benefiting wildlife but also the villagers.”

Paul mentions a particular problem: on December 21st last year, the Madurai Bench of the Madras high court ordered all Prosopis juliflora vegetation to be removed from 13 districts in Tamil Nadu. This exotic shrub, which has come to dominate the landscape of arid districts, was introduced to India in the 1870s. It was initially considered a boon to the poor as its wood provided a valuable source of livelihood when agriculture failed. It is used as firewood, fodder, as shade tree, for soil stabilization, to make charcoal and as construction material in villages. But the high court declared the species as detrimental to the environment in terms of depleting groundwater levels and aiding global warming, and ordered its eradication. The court later pulled up many district collectors for delay in Prosopis eradication, and made the order applicable to all 32 districts of the state.

“Ramco will be obliged to remove the Prosopis as the company is very much in the public eye. But we are not all that happy. TDEF saplings need shade, especially if they are planted in poor soil. In the early days of Auroville, the work tree (Acacia auriculiformis) served as a shade plant. In this area we were planning to use the Prosopis as shade plants by cutting alleys through them, so that the ingenuous flora could grow up. Now we have to find another solution.”

But on April 29 this year, the Madras high court put the brakes on the indiscriminate removal of Prosopis and ordered that, till a larger bench of the court decides the issue, no Prosopis plant should be removed in Tamil Nadu. The order came on a Public Interest petition against the decision of the Madurai court, arguing that the removal would adversely affect the environment, wildlife in particular, and that its negative impacts had not been scientifically proven. The matter is now sub-judice.

Up in the hills

The Botanical Gardens currently have three projects at various stages up in the hills: a 45-acre site in Ooty, a 10-acre resort in Coorg and a smaller one in Yercaud. “In all these projects we are studying the local forests to extend our knowledge and work with our principle of using native species within the landscapes,” says Paul. The Ooty project is particularly exciting. “Here we are working on reintroducing the original hill vegetation, the shola forests and montane grasslands. Our client wants to build a resort with houses buried into the hillside and covered with native grasses. We are working with a local ecologist and have already planted a large area of shola forests. We are now working on reintroducing the grasslands, which have been taken over by agriculture. For native grasses are the best restorers of the water table as they have hairs that absorb moisture from the atmosphere. That pulls the water and restores the springs.”

All these projects are great examples of how commercial ventures can see the potential benefits of working with sustainable landscaping. The project developers are not only concerned about creating beautiful resorts in an environmentally responsible manner, but also about giving their guests a deeper and more meaningful recreational experience that will ensure that they return again and again to see how nature is developing and benefiting.

What can the government do?

Paul confirms that environmental awareness and people’s sense of responsibility to do something for the environment are on the increase. “There is a deepening level of understanding what forests can bring – water, erosion control, pollinators, minor forest products, biodiversity. Many individuals, from school children to people from the upper layers of society, are ready to work for the environment. Many corporations are committed and would love to do more.”

He argues that the government should take an active role. Stimulating environmental education is one way; motivating and empowering individuals to plant and protect trees on their own land and on public lands another; while creating financial incentives in the form of tax deductions would be a major stimulus to environmental regeneration.

Botanical Garden dreams

While the outreach work is exciting, the main reason for it should not be lost: to pay for the costs of the Auroville Botanical Gardens – its educational programmes, its maintenance and its further development. Plans for the future include erecting a watchtower for the kids and building a new water body of around 260 square metres, hopefully big enough to become home to Victoria amazonica, the iconic water lily that has enormous floating leaves. Along the margins of the pond will be the Gardens’ collection of native water grasses, sedges and reeds. The pond will become a new focus for visitors in the early evenings, as it will be next to the children's playground, another development they hope to fund this year.

A larger project is the Indian Cultural Heritage Garden that will introduce visitors to the species that are associated with a variety of India’s sacred traditions. Astrological significance, planetary connections, stalwarts of the ayurvedic and siddha medicine preparations and plants that have special significance for the gods and in pujas will be represented in the garden.

A project that is already underway is a Japanese Garden which will have a Pavilion of Silent Reflection at its centre, bringing the qualities of beauty and stillness into the Botanical Garden. It will be a place where people will be inspired by the harmony of nature and spirit that Japanese gardens are famous for.

The last and largest project is the Pangolin, a lath house for shade plants. Envisaged as a climatically controlled area covering approximately 2,000 square metres, it will house shade plants from a number of genera such as ferns, palms, orchids, cyrads and a host of lesser known plants. A 200-metres long elevated ramp will take the visitor over a moist evergreen tropical environment with flowing waterfalls and streams. The landscape will be seen from above giving a unique perspective of the growing plants while avoiding damage to plants that could be caused by too much human traffic. At a costs of over Rs 2 crores (US $ 500,000) this is a far shot, but, says Paul, it’s a worthy aim.

Now that the gardens are taking shape and developing, they will become more open to the public. A small stage has been created to host small cultural events in the late afternoon and early evening, in order to draw more people into the gardens. “We will start with a monthly programme of music, poetry or small theatre performances that will be linked to seasonal events in the gardens, perhaps the summer flowering of the trees, the return of the migrant birds or simply the rich lush greens of monsoon.”

The success of the Auroville forests has been described as a testament to the passion and commitment of the early settlers. The success of Auroville’s environmental outreach programmes is a promise for a greener India.

For more information about Auroville’s ecology visit Auroville’s plant identification website www.plantekey.com. For more information about the Botanical Gardens visit www.auroville-botanical-gardens.org or email botanical@auroville.org.in.