Land encroachment

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 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 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 newspaper The Hindu reported on August 7th that the Minister of State for Education, Shri Sukanta Majumdar, replying in Parliament to a set of questions about Auroville, had said that the Central Government has referred a range of complaints, including dubious land exchanges, encroachment, cybercrime and money laundering in Auroville, to the appropriate bodies / agencies.

In June, two members of the Funds and Assets Management Committee appointed by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation (FO-FAMC) sent an email announcing that this FAMC will stop maintenance payments as well as the regular Forest budget to green workers from July onwards.

The Ami/Evergreen land dispute case was heard in Tindivanam on 15th February, but the lawyers for the Land Board and the Auroville Foundation did not appear.

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.

For many years Paul Vincent has been involved with trying to protect the land of Auroville. Here he gives his views on the present situation in which private developments in the Auroville area are mushrooming, and suggests what can be done about it.

On June 12th, Auroville bade farewell to Mohan Verghese Chunkath who had been serving as Secretary of the Auroville Foundation since June 2016.

Looking at some of the old issues of Auroville Today, it’s fascinating to see how some of the articles could have been written just last week.

“The procurement of land for Auroville is the most urgent priority in order to ensure the future of the project in its original spirit,” says Sauro Mezzetti, member of the Working Committee and former overall coordinator of L’Avenir d’Auroville.

At 135 acres, Annapurna is Auroville’s largest farm and is furthest away from the city centre. Due to lack of (wo)manpower and capital for investment, only a quarter of Annapurna is under intense cultivation, while fodder and timber is grown in the rest of the land.

In the spirit of ‘Unity in diversity’, Auroville International (AVI) invited all AVI members and Aurovilians on 15th February to a walking tour through the International Zone and a re-dedication of the Zone in an effort to rekindle its development.