Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO)

Chali reflects on the fractures within Auroville and on the possibilities of restoration.

The Discipline community has lost 2.5 acres of forested land after the AVFO decided not to appeal a court order that awarded the land to private claimants.

On 29 April four cases concerning Auroville were listed in the Madras High Court before its summer closure during the month of May. The case filed by a concerned member of the Residents’ Assembly concerning the constitution of the Admission and Termination Scrutinising Committee (ATSC) was basically accepted for debate and the lawyers of the Foundation Office were directed to submit their arguments within six weeks.

“Wishing to move forward in collaboration towards the building of the city and the right administering of Auroville,” the AVFO on 9 May issued a call for self-nomination in key areas of the Auroville administration, eg a group, service, unit or trust.

Two editions of a new e-magazine named “Auroville Tomorrow” have been published by the Auroville Foundation Office. The first “revised edition No. 01”, [‘revised’ may refer to three earlier issues of Auroville Tomorrow published in 2022] dated 24 April 2025 introduces itself as “Auroville’s official future-focused newsletter” of the Auroville Foundation, Ministry of Education.

On 27 February 2025, at the invitation of Mr. Koshy Varghese, a group of seven residents met with the Secretary, the OSD, Dr. Seetharaman, and the consultant for visa matters, Mr.

In response to a Right to Information request of 7 December, 2024 the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education has sent the applicant on 3 January the minutes of the 67th Governing Board meeting held in Auroville on 31 May, 2024.

In two events in early February, residents visited the Auroville Foundation Office to express their deep concerns about the loss of Auroville land near Evergreen community and to request the Auroville Foundation Office to appeal the judgement in which ownership of the land, which had been in Auroville's ownership for 30 years, was passed to a property developer.

The Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO) continues to enter into institutional agreements without consulting or informing the Residents' Assembly (RA).

The Auroville Foundation has announced via a recruitment notification that there will be three new Deputy Secretaries, alongside a new Under Secretary, recruited to work in the AVFO.

Still no news has been communicated to the Auroville community about who will replace the former Secretary to the Auroville Foundation, Dr. Jayanti Ravi, whose term of office ended on July 4th, and who was appointed Additional Chief Secretary in the Government of Gujarat on July 31st, 2024.

For the past three years, we have seen the arrival of another type of Secretary, a new top-down style of governance, and an imposed vision of development of Auroville.

The RA-WCom informed the community that a critical situation has been unfolding at Auro Orchard. On 18th July, employees of the buyer closed fences, cutting off access to the home of two residents and members of the farm.

On July 15th, residents of the Sri Ma community received an “Emergency Evacuation Notice” signed by the Deputy Secretary of the AVFO, mentioning that “the sea erosion has reached a critical situation today and the buildings may collapse at any moment”.

Secretary: The Secretary of the AVFO, Dr Jayanti Ravi, ended her three-year term on 4th July 2024. On July 31st, the Government of Gujarat notified her appointment as Additional Chief Secretary to the Government Revenue Department, Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar.

In the beginning of May, the Auroville farmers published a report in the community edition of the Auroville News and Notes questioning the results of the imposition of the fruit harvest auction by the Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO).

The RA-WCom informed the community that the hearings in the Supreme Court of India on the verdict from the Madras High Court of 15th March 2024, which had invalidated the GB’s Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC) and had called for more collaboration between the GB and the Residents’ Assembly (RA), will probably take place in the second week of July.

On March 9th the Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO) tendered and on March 27th auctioned the fruits of the fruits trees of the Auroville Farms, without any consultation with the RA.

At the end of February 2024, a number of Aurovilians were notified by the AVFO BCC that their maintenance would be cut, starting 1st March. This follows earlier suggestions to some residents that their work would be “realigned”. 175 residents have already had their maintenances removed, and it is expected that the further maintenance cuts will affect hundreds of Aurovilians who depend on a City Services maintenance for their livelihood in Auroville.

From the website it became known that the Auroville Foundation Office has invited many tenders for carrying out various works. Amongst them are: doing a digital topographical survey for the area beyond the Outer Ring Road up to the Green Belt region and a complete layout for Auroville from the centre to the Green Belt; a tender for the execution of the balance portion of the Crown Road, including the provision of led street lighting; a tender for the construction of the Darkali bridge at the Crown Road; a tender for the construction of the Outer Ring Road from the secondary service node to the Visitor’s Centre Parking, including led street lighting; and the demarcation of service nodes and proposed building location as per layout.

Two of the team members newly appointed by the AVFO to manage Auroville’s guest houses have demanded that all guest house managers hand over their reservations list and immediately cease to take bookings.

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.

Frederick, who came to India in 1966 and has been living in Auroville ever since its inception in 1968, gives his view of the recent happenings.

An important meeting was held at the Auroville Foundation Office on 21 November with a delegation from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, New Delhi, and officers of the National Highway Authority of India and their consultants attending.