Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988

Bommayarpalayam

40 Years of Auroville’s Village Action

Pongal celebration at the AVAG office

In 2023, Auroville’s Village Action Group (AVAG) celebrated 40 years. In this issue of Auroville Today we publish excerpts of the December 2023 newsletter of AVAG, highlighting the transformation AVAG has achieved in the life of women from the surrounding villages.

Coastal restoration

On 3rd November, Dr Ravichandran, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt of India, visited Auroville along with Dr Ramanamurthy, Director of National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), to discuss the restoration of the eroded coast.

Recovering lost beaches

The new beach at Halcyon (with the white wall) and Simplicity

In the past decade, relentless sea erosion has badly affected some of Auroville's beach communities. Auroville Today reported on the problems a number of times, most recently in the article "New hope for our beaches?"

Proposed National Highway threatens Auroville

Map showing the new highway through the Auroville Greenbelt (in blue dots) as originally routed and the four bypasses proposed by Auroville: along National Highway 66, and then reaching the East Coast Road along an existing road (in pink)

Survey markings in the Greenbelt installed by a consultant working for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) revealed that plans were afoot to build a four-lane National Highway through the Auroville Green Belt for a length of 3.5 kilometers, crossing the Forecomers, Pitchandikulam and Aurogreen areas.

The necessity of co-development with the local villages

Cristo has worked for many years on developing collaborations with the local villages. Why does he do it? What are the challenges and the satisfactions?

Oli branches out

So far so good - making sense of the English language

An Auroville school uses various educational methods to engage children from the local area.

The Water Challenge (Letter to Aurovilians)

Tamil farmers and the water issue

From left to right Arivasu, Satiyabalan, Gnanamani and Paneerselvam

Auroville Today met with four local farmers who irrigate their land in the area of Kuilapalayam. Arivasu’s main crop is cashew, but he irrigates coconut trees.

Promoting safety – the work of the Security Team

From left: Shahar

Auroville was unaffected by the violence that erupted on January 14th in the neighboring village of Bommaiyarpalayam following the brutal daylight murder of the husband of its panchayat president.

Are volunteers milk cows?