Measuring Eternity

On April 14, Tamil New Year, a frantic voice message for help was heard by many in Auroville. A bulldozer was uprooting the living fence bordering Eternity, a densely forested Auroville community located between the beach and the East Coast Road near Kalapet. Over a period of several days, the destruction resumed at unexpected moments. Each time, a number of Auroville representatives and residents hopped on their motorbikes, travelled 15 km to join Eternity’s residents on the beach, stood under the summer sun, and requested authorities to put a stop to the clearing. Between four to nine metres depth of dense plantation were uprooted along approximately 800 metres of Eternity’s eastern beach front.

Mother’s gift

All in all, the situation was very confounding. Eternity is situated on Puducherry land that was originally gifted to the Mother as a place of respite from the noise of Pondicherry town and the ashram. When Mother decided the time had come to establish Auroville as a Township, she chose to gift the land to Auroville.

At the time, land boundaries were generally marked very simply with palmyra palm trees. When the Skoles family arrived 35 years ago to steward the land, Eternity was pretty much a barren sand dune. Over the years, tough shrubs and cacti were planted along the boundaries indicated by the palmyras to grow the live fence. At one point, one of the village neighbours requested that the boundaries of Auroville’s property be clearly demarcated, so a detailed survey was finally conducted in 2010. This was an expensive endeavour funded by the Skoles family and Auroville together. However, the Skoles felt the funds were well invested when they experienced how intensive and participatory the process was.

Eternity is flanked by two villages and a pharmaceutical company. Before the 2010 survey even started, every single concerned person was first informed in writing. Conducting the survey brought together the Survey Department of Puducherry, Auroville representatives, the Kalapet ward councillor, panchayat (village council) officials, all the immediate neighbours, and police personnel. In certain places, borders had to be adjusted to what was most sensible for all parties concerned while respecting overall property size. As Jonah Skoles recalls, “We came to (signed) agreements with all the neighbours that everyone could live with.” On the eastern side of the property, bordered only by the beach, the panchayat officials stated that there was no need to survey. The northeast and southeast corners had been set, so the property ran in a straight line between these two points, and that was that.

The detailed, largely amicable process was a testament to two things. First, Auroville, as represented by the entire Skoles family, had clearly established a strong rapport and relationship with the local community around Eternity. Second, the Survey Department and all the participating government officials demonstrated great care and rigour in carrying out their work. At the time, it was very strongly suggested that Auroville’s land should be marked by walls at all the corners, so the Skoles family subsequently invested a great deal of energy and money into doing this. The Puducherry government then laid a road adjacent to the southern boundary.

The current predicament

Unfortunately, this 2010 survey has been misplaced. Neither the Survey Department of Puducherry nor the Auroville Foundation Office have been able to locate their copies in order to bring clarity to current land challenges. A new, expedited survey was undertaken, starting on April 27, but the results along the southern border (immediately next to which the government laid a road based on the previous survey) and eastern border (which was destroyed by the bulldozer) do not seem to match that of the 2010 survey.

All sorts of rumours have circulated about who is behind the bulldozing, but no official papers or notice have been forthcoming to shed light on the matter. There may be plans to develop tourism infrastructure directly on the beach, but this would seem to run counter to official guidelines for coastal protection. And certainly, any such development raises both ecological and human safety concerns given the frequency of cyclones, the 2004 tsunami, and the increasing severity of weather and storms in the area and around the world.

However Auroville chooses to respond to this particular land issue, the concern for the Eternity forest and the exposed beach is the damage that has already been done. After 25 to 30 years of careful nurturing, the green fence had become almost self-sustaining. The mangrove cactuses and thorny shrubs protected the forest from the salt wind, the sun, intense storms, roving cows and goats, and human intruders. To reestablish the fence will likely take another 25 years, and it is not yet clear what effect this may have on the overall health of the forest.

Just to the south of Eternity, a canyon outlet drains large amounts of water to the sea every monsoon. A huge field of natural creepers had grown over the beach and checked erosion here, but this too was uprooted by the bulldozer. The beach itself and the local communities will certainly be impacted by vastly increased erosion in this area, an increasingly serious issue up and down the coast. In fact, Auroville has already ceded to erosion on three formerly beachfront properties.

At 18.4 acres, Eternity may be the largest beach reforestation project on India’s east coast. Just one week before the fence was torn up, Auroville’s Forest Group had visited Eternity as part of a current effort to conduct detailed surveys of all Auroville forests. Old time foresters were amazed to see what was growing, how well certain species were doing, and how different Eternity’s coastal ecosystem is from the rest of Auroville’s forests.

History

Whatever lies ahead, Eternity has proven an important model of what coastal reforestation and protection can look like when supported by a passionate and tight knit community. Although the Mother herself chose to make this parcel of land a part of Auroville, no one at all came forward for stewardship in the 1970s. The land was at quite a distance from the Township center and the barren beach was even more hostile as an environment than the barren main plateau. At the time (and still today) Auroville forest and farm development was also largely dependent on individual stewards’ abilities to invest personal funds or raise funds to do the job.

In the early 1980s, François Samson, originally from Switzerland, relocated to Eternity from Meadow as he felt strongly that this was Mother’s own land and must be cared for. He was able to begin planting, put up a windmill, and build a rudimentary shelter, but he was then obliged by circumstance to return to Switzerland. By the end of 1986, when Anna (Dutch) and Yuval Skoles (Israeli) arrived in Pondicherry with their four children, the land had again been untended for several years.

The Skoles family had just spent the last two years travelling, mostly in Asia, looking for “something different”, something they could pour their love and energy into. They were immediately convinced that Auroville was the right fit for them. However, each community they looked at was a little overwhelmed by the size of their family. Somebody then suggested they go check out this piece of land on the beach that no one was taking care of

Nurturing Eternity

There was nothing there really. Just sand, three neglected trees, and a broken windmill. Still, when Anna saw it, she knew. It was, as Jonah recalls, “one of these pieces of land that really demanded a certain pioneering spirit and a lot of money to tackle. Everything had to be done. From roads, to fencing, to pipes in the ground.” When the Forest Group met Yuval, they judged he had what it took and fully backed him as Eternity’s steward.

As soon as the Skoles moved to Eternity in 1987, reforestation work started in earnest, and everyone participated. With 2 adults and soon 5 children, the Skoles were themselves a small battalion. They would tackle a particular area with intense planting, and then water, water, water. Jitta mimes the action as she describes repeatedly walking back and forth, day after day, filling and carrying the koojas (clay pots) full of water. Planting was much easier here than in the hard, red soil of Auroville’s central plateau. The challenge was keeping the trees alive for the first five to eight years until they established an adequate root system.

Watering was a little easier after Yuval was able to temporarily repair the broken windmill. It was easier still when a crew of Aurovilians helped build and erect a new windmill. However, windmills only work when the wind blows. So Yuval and Anna adjusted their schedule. They would put the children to sleep and water for hours under the full moon at night because that’s when there was wind. Bleary eyed and exhausted in the morning, they would hurriedly pack the children off to school so they could catch a nap.

Slowly the impact of this dedication became visible. A 1993 article in this magazine reported that Eternity had by then “turned into a small oasis”, with coconut and fruit trees, acacia, neem, and banyan trees, and a “windbreak of casuarinas facing the sea”. There was even a telephone, electricity, two houses and several guest pods.

After 2000, someone from the Israeli Forest Department visited. He was ready to share best practices with Auroville foresters. After walking Eternity, he had nothing to say. Instead he asked Yuval, originally a hairdresser by training, how he had known what to do. Jonah recalls Yuval’s reply, “I did what felt right.”

The coastal ecosystem is not forgiving. Any plant that can’t take root dies within weeks. What survives grows very slowly. For years, the Skoles planted up to 5000 trees a year. Then, as the forest started to establish, they slowly came down to 1000 – 2000. Jonah is amazed at the transformation right at ground level. “In the areas where we started planting first, if you look at the earth, it’s become dark, rich. Then you walk out onto the beach, and you look at the sand and it’s just white.”

Storms

While there has been damage during major storm events, the established forest protects itself as well as the area inland. Around 2003, a severe cyclone destroyed any trees that had grown above the canopy. Anan remembers the explosive sounds, like rapid gunfire, as the tree tops snapped off in the gale winds. The 2004 tsunami swept through and destroyed anything small that hadn’t established itself well enough yet. And in 2011, super cyclone Thane again destroyed some very tall trees.

During each of these events, the forest functioned as a whole organism, dramatically slowing the force of the wind or the water. In fact, there was visible proof of this after the tsunami. Just to the south and north, the villages surrounding Eternity suffered intense damage, but immediately to Eternity’s west, there was no damage at all.

This contrast caught the eye of the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments during post-tsunami rehabilitation efforts. Government representatives visited Eternity and subsequently tried to replicate what they saw and learned, planting casuarinas and all kinds of things along the east coast for several years. There are some patches near Mahabalipuram where the effort continues, but for the most part, the project was abandoned. People found it too much work and too hard to keep the plantations alive.

Sanctuary

Jonah says it requires deep passion for the work, the land, for creating something beautiful. He references a well-known Tagore quote when he says, “I really feel that’s what my parents did. They worked on this to create a certain sanctuary that would benefit Auroville in the future, beyond all of our lives. For 35 years, we have all put our devotion for the divine into the land.” He sighs deeply when he thinks of the destruction that has just taken place along the beach. “This event has set us back, but we’ll just continue what we’ve always been doing, which is taking care of the land and hoping that it regenerates.”

At different points, the Skoles had thought to develop various projects at Eternity. Anna and Rauf Ali, another Aurovilian, looked into setting up a marine research centre, but they didn’t have the right Forest Department permissions. Then there was the idea to process virgin coconut oil. But the water and fertiliser requirements of such a commercial venture didn’t fit with ecological considerations. When the Puducherry Government began promoting tourism in the area, around 2010, the Skoles submitted a proposal to Auroville for starting an eco-resort, but the project did not get approved. Jonah says, “I think Eternity was just always meant to be this safe and quiet place, this forest on the beach.”

Community

Over the years, the Skoles have always welcomed and hosted Aurovilians who needed a break and time to recover from something happening in their lives. “There was always an extra place at the table, extra food. There was always someone who showed up to eat,” says Jonah, “that was just how things were done.” Anan remembers there were often up to twenty children (Aurovilian and from the neighbouring village) running around on Sundays. Jitta remembers all the classes that came out regularly for sleepovers, stargazing, storytelling.

The first generation of Skoles who grew up in Eternity have all become pillars of the Auroville community, supporting governance, economy, education, construction, and ecology sectors in Auroville and beyond. They have their own families now, and all reside in Auroville, with a strong contingent in Eternity, including a new generation of children and youth. All are keen to continue supporting Eternity’s function as a place of sanctuary and retreat. But for this, Auroville may need to take a more proactive stance in the face of rampant area development and coastal erosion.