Statement by the Forest Group

After having read the article, “A challenging and controversial task: the work of the Governing Board-appointed Funds and Assets Management Committee” published in Auroville Today, issue #422, in particular Torkil’s perspective regarding the Auroville Forest Group, we would like to include a response in this edition of Auroville Today. Ideally, this rejoinder would have been published in the same issue, as the article presents a singular viewpoint and omits important information and facts, however we hadn’t been informed beforehand.

Quoted passages from the interview:

(Alan:) No doubt, the FAMC has to deal with financial shortfalls as well as abuses. The question is if it is being done in the best possible way. Your work has resulted in much pain and social disruption, and the impact has not only been financial but also social, and this has extended far beyond Auroville. For example, the decision to cut the foresters’ maintenances resulted in many forest employees from the villages being laid off. Many of these workers had worked all their lives in Auroville and they are too old to find other jobs, even though their families rely upon their income. From a strictly economic point of view there may be too many maintenances for the amount of forest, but isn’t the financial and social cost of cuts like these disproportionate?

(Torkil:) After talking to the government forest department people the conclusion was we need perhaps 12–18 people to steward our forests, whereas more than 100 maintenances and staff salaries were being paid. This was because historically the focus was on planting the forest. But that was many years ago and, like so many other things in Auroville, this situation just ‘froze’ and was never adapted to the present need. There were a number of attempts to get a meeting with the Forest Group to discuss this, but they refused, saying they did not want to discuss any change. A conflict like this has no good ending. The administration was left with only two options: to surrender or cut the funding, so we cut the money. I don’t think it should have ended like this. It ended up as a stupid situation, a black and white story, which nobody wanted.

Firstly, we would like to point out that the initial question only hints at the fact that the GB-appointed FAMC has for the past 15 months refused to release money for the gratuity payments towards the 60 employed forest workers who had been laid off with a one-week notice in July 2023. Gratuity payments for employees who have worked at one workplace for 20+ years are, even if in some cases not a legal, at least an ethical obligation for the employer.

Secondly, the Forest Group never stated anything in the line that “the group does not want to discuss any change”. This is entirely fictitious. However, this quoted accusation had already been stated in an email by the GB-appointed FAMC to a few individual Forest Group members on June 21, 2023 informing them about the cut of maintenances and forest budget from July onwards. Admittedly communication with the GB-appointed FAMC has been laborious from the moment of their questionable appointment in June 2022.

Last but not least we would like to comment on the alleged estimation by the government forest department regarding management of the current Auroville forests. It has to be pointed out that there is no single comparable reforestation project in India run by any government or non-government organisation. Reforestation of degraded land with indigenous plant species, a focus on maximizing biodiversity and recreating a severely endangered vegetation type, paired with water conservation and the keeping of nurseries and seed banks as is done in Auroville, is absolutely unique. The fact that the Forest Group for the past 40 years has not been working with the mindset of an organization but rather that of a collective is the very reason for its success. In fact, over the years many forest department officers have visited the Auroville forests in awe, eager to learn from Auroville foresters’ experiences.

The main reason for the outstanding success of the reforestation efforts done in Auroville over the past 50 years is the unique community supported long-standing ability and dedication to protect and manage its forest plantation areas. Fence lines of Auroville forests are unusually long due to the fragmentation of Auroville lands. And fences are indispensable for successful reforestation as the keeping out of cattle, goats and other destructive elements is key.

To a layman’s eye it might seem that the reforestation in Auroville is completed by now and all that’s left to do for the forester is to watch the trees grow. Far from that. Most tall trees we find in our forests today are pioneer trees which only create the environment needed for the slow-growing indigenous species to flourish. Most of those species haven’t reached their maturity yet and inter-planting of indigenous saplings is continuously done by the Forest Group up until now.

In conclusion, the unsubstantiated claim that the 1200+ acres of forested Auroville land could be managed by 12–18 people completely disregards the proven successful method of reforestation carried out by a long line of dedicated and passionate community members. In the light of various development projects taking place in forested areas of Auroville since the maintenance and budget cut in July 2023 (Outer Ring Road through Silence, Miracle, Revelation, Espace, Baraka; bridge construction in Darkali; clearing for PTDC outlet and car parking in Bliss; clearing for Matrimandir-Lake-Soil-Hill and access roads in the northern forests including the NFA sanctuary) it seems that the true intentions behind the abrupt cut of funds for the Forest Group were not only economical, as suggested by Torkil, but rather a strategic move to discredit, discourage and silence the voice of the Forest Group; just another brick in the wall of fabricated false narrative to justify current developments while suppressing community participation.

It is clear that the agenda of the GB-appointed FAMC clashes with the Forest Group’s ecological vision for Auroville’s green spaces. We are hopeful that a healthy combination of ecology and economy paired with common sense, respect for the collective, ethical behavior and solidarity will prevail in the City the Earth Needs.