Crown clearing

This statement, issues on 4th January 2024, is issued in response to the indiscriminate feeling of numerous trees apparently for road construction, currently taking place in Auroville.

On the 4th January, many people were shocked to see many Service trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum/ Copper Pod tree) being felled on the Crown between the Solar Kitchen and Mahalakshmi Home.

The Secretary, together with Dena Merriam and some participants in the Science and Spirit conference, held a tree puja in Darkali to pray for the spirits of the many trees which may be cut to make the Crown Road.

Elodie and Txuma, whose bathroom is on the proposed Crown Road, received a letter signed by Dr G. Seetharaman, AVFO’s ‘Officer on Special Duty’, informing them that they are illegal occupants of ‘public premises’, and threatening them with eviction if they do not move.

On April 28th, 2022, the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chennai, comprising judicial member Justice K. Ramakrishnan and expert member K.

In a well-attended meeting of the Residents' Assembly (RA) held on January 2nd, a proposed decision to be made by the RA (RAD) was formulated:

What Aurovilians are asking for is a town planning process that upholds and reflects the ideals of ‘the city the earth needs’.

Green work in Auroville is lauded as a fantastic achievement of what can be done to transform a desert land into a green oasis – but other hidden aspects of this green work are not only negative but even extremely harmful for the Auroville Project.

While the vast majority of Aurovilians see a need for the Crown, differences exist concerning how it should be manifested. Here, in a summarized form, we present some of the major expressed differences in perspective, some of which have not been adequately fact-checked.

This issue is almost entirely devoted to the tumultuous events of the last weeks which saw bulldozers removing trees planted by Auroville foresters and Auroville habitations in the Youth Centre, to clear a path for the Right of Way of the Crown, which is intended to connect the four zones of the city.

In the aftermath of the recent Residents’ Assembly Meeting, I have tried to understand and introspect the inner resistance that I have been feeling towards “moving on”.

A year ago, in February 2020, there was an attempt to survey a route through the Youth Centre and Bliss forest for the laying of a High Tension cable.

Twenty six years ago, the youth were looking for a new home as Ami, which had been a youth community for many years, was no longer a welcoming environment.

Bliss forest is a city park that is densely planted to be a forest. Aurovilians from South Korea may be familiar with a similar concept in the city of Seoul.

If we stand by the Charter of Auroville then we must consider this: in January 1968, a city plan, commissioned by the Mother, was approved. Two weeks later She wrote the Charter.