Ecological biodiversity

Boris Verjoutski, who passed away in April of this year, regularly contributed his observations of the natural world and human behaviour to Auroville’s weekly “News & Notes” community newsletter.

On May 6th, the Auroville Forest Group, which was constituted by the RA in 1982 and which is endorsed in the Auroville Universal Township Master Plan – Perspective 2025, circulated an email reiterating its commitment to nurture and protect the green spaces and provide an integrated ecological basis for Auroville, physically and spiritually.

Silence Forest, an 11.2-acre green enclave neighbouring the Vérité community, is little known, even to many Aurovilians. In 2023, five research students from the University of Pondicherry, who were volunteering for the Auroville unit Yuvabe and were mentored by two professors, studied the flora and fauna of the forest and its ability to sequester carbon, conserve water, and increase resilience to adverse climate events.

Deepika Kundaji is known in India for her work in seed-conservation and land regeneration. She is regularly called on to conduct training for farmer groups and to speak about her work.

One of Auroville’s success stories has been the greening and transformation of severely denuded and eroded land to what is now a diverse, rich and, in pockets, thriving woodlands.

As Auroville battles encroachment, nearby deforestation, water depletion and chemical farming, the green skills developed by the pioneers who brought the barren plateau back to life become ever more important.

Auroville Botanical Garden’s Educational Programmes are teaching local students the importance of conserving our local biodiversity.

On a steamy Saturday afternoon in August, Auroville’s Botanical Gardens threw open its gates to the public to come and celebrate its 15th birthday.

The lake around the Matrimandir was foreseen by The Mother. Already in 1965, years before Auroville was founded, She had given Nata the task of studying the lake and how the water could be sourced.