Master Plan (Perspective 2025)

L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s Town Planning Council constituted by the Governing Board, informed the community that it is “taking decisive steps in the implementation of the Auroville Master Plan, which has been extended [by the Governing Board] to 2035 to allow for the complete realisation of the township as originally envisaged”.

On 20 March, the Ministry of Education, responding to two Right to Information requests dated 25 and 26 February, sent the applicant a copy of the Minutes of the 68th Meeting of the Governing Board (GB) of the Auroville Foundation held on 5 December 2024, which have since been widely distributed in Auroville.

On 20 April the Working Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) shared with the community a letter it had written on 16 April to the members of the Governing Board, copied to the members of the Auroville International Advisory Council.

On 17 March 2025, the Supreme Court of India delivered two judgements. One was on the appeal of the Auroville Foundation against the verdict of the National Green Tribunal passed in April 2022; the other on the appeal of the Auroville Foundation against the judgement of the Madras High Court of March 2024 regarding the Auroville Town Development Council.

In the previous issue of Auroville Today we published the major considerations and decisions of the Governing Board as reported in the minutes of its 67th Governing Board meeting held in Auroville on 31 May 2024.

In March 2024, an Aurovilian filed two writ petitions at the Madras High Court. The first petition prayed the court to restrain the Auroville Foundation from land exchanges without following the procedures laid down in the Auroville Foundation Rules 1997 and the General Financial Rules 2017.

The National Green Tribunal verdict and appeal The Auroville Universal Township Master Plan (Perspective 2025) is a perspective and directional document that was approved in 2001 by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) – now Ministry of Education (MoE) – and published by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation in the Gazette of India in 2010.

The RA-TDC informed the community that on 27 January it had sent a letter to high government officials addressing ongoing concerns about non-compliance by the GB-ATDC and the Central Public Works Department which executes the road building in accordance with the Auroville Master Plan (Perspective 2025).

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 this as in all great human aspirations and endeavours, an a priori declaration of impossibility is a sign of ignorance and weakness. For by the doing the difficulty will be solved.”

Prashant Hedao was the Regional Planning Coordinator of L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s Town Planning Department, from 2007-2010. In those years he worked closely together with then Governing Board member Dr BV Doshi on the Auroville Master Plan.

There are important questions to be asked regarding the population of Auroville. Firstly, who decided that the intended population of the township would be 50,000, and is this figure immutable, fixed, or can it be adjusted?

We are used to saying that Auroville does not fit neatly into any known category. But this doesn’t stop many of us having certain fixed ideas about how it should develop.

The Working Committee constituted by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) has shared with the community extensive information regarding land exchanges and transactions that have taken place in the last two years.

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.

There have been many requests for clarity on the background and status of the numerous court cases that are pending in various courts in India, including in the Supreme Court of India, regarding the present situation in Auroville.

In February, the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture hosted a double exhibition: Bhavyo’s paintings of the icy peaks of the Himalayan Tosh valley were displayed in its main room, while a number of urban design studies of his twin sister Bhavya were hung around the courtyard.

On March 15, a bench of the Madras High Court consisting of its Hon’ble Chief Justice Mr. Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and the Hon'ble Mr. Justice D.

Issued by two members of the International Advisory Council and supported by eight International personalities

Over the past three years, the government of India, Auroville’s host country, which had been a rather discreet and benevolent partner in previous decades, has decided to precipitate the course of events and intervene vigorously in the Town’s construction.

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.

The Board in-principle approved the construction of a boundary wall around the inner circle of the outer ring road. As the costs of erecting a barbed wire fencing are cheaper to the tune of about 50% to the cost for prefabricated cement structure, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) submitted a revised quotation for Rs.18.69 crores.

Land exchange is very much in the news at present, with Auroville land being exchanged for privately-owned land in AuroOrchard and mooted as a possibility in places like Forecomers and Pebble Garden.

In the General Meeting of 1st April, the Dreamweaving Core Team (David, Mona and Omar) committed themselves to making further proposals to the community.

In an open letter to the Farm Service, the FO FAMC and the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, Auroville farmers raised their concern as to the announcement that three farm areas (Buddha Garden, Siddhartha and Shambala) are to be removed to make place for a road, parking lots and convenience facilities for a planned VIP road, a road which is not mentioned in the gazetted Master Plan.

François Gautier came to India in 1969 at the age of 19, with the first Auroville caravan. Deeply impressed by Sri Aurobindo's writings, he chose to reside in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for about seven years, after which he joined Auroville, where he has been living since.

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.

Since the first week of June 2023, the Land Board appointed by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation has been clearing areas of Revelation Forest, one of Auroville’s largest forests, to prepare for the Outer Ring Road under direction of the Auroville Foundation appointed Town Development Council (FO–ATDC).

In order to prioritise the upcoming decision making events of the Residents’ Assembly, the Auroville Council organised a poll asking Aurovilians to express their priorities from a list of ten topics. 132 submissions were received online, by mail or on paper.

On January 4th, 2022, during a Dreamweaving session, there was a presentation on the concept of Vaastu Shilpa Shastra. Auroville architect Mona Doctor-Pingel introduced the concept by explaining that Vaastu Shilpa Shastra is commonly translated as the ‘Science of Building’, and is a component of the traditional, collective and evolutionary knowledge systems of India.

As part of a survey of the Galaxy Master Plan, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Government of India, has been marking and numbering trees.

Manoj Pavithran is an integral yoga practitioner, educator and filmmaker. He was drawn to Sri Aurobindo in 1989 and eventually joined Auroville in 1995.

The Chairman of the Governing Board and Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri R.N Ravi, accompanied by three members of the Governing Board, Smt.

A number of assets have been built over the years in areas that are deemed reserved for other purposes according to the Master Plan. These areas include the Crown and the Outer Ring Road.

This interview with Anupama Kundoo is the third article in the series ‘city perspectives’. Anupama Kundoo graduated from Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai in 1989 and received her doctoral degree from TU Berlin in 2008.

Under the Auroville Foundation Act, there are three statutory authorities who jointly administer and manage the Foundation and they are a) Governing Body, b) International Advisory Council and c) Residents Assembly and all the three are having well defined powers and one cannot override the power of the other. – Excerpt from the discussion section of the judgment

On 31st December, the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, Dr. Jayanti Ravi, invited the community to meet with her the next day when she would answer questions.

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:

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.

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.

The clearing of the Crown, Auroville’s main urban path, once again met with resistance after 25 years of discussion and waiting, on December 4.

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

It is always foolhardy to offer conclusions when the dust has yet to settle during a major turmoil or, when, indeed, controversy is still roiling the community.

Cristo was the Coordinator of the Auroville Universal Township Integrated Master Plan 1999, the first Auroville Master Plan, which was approved by the community.

Prashant Hedao is a landscape architect and environmental planner with a Masters in Landscape Architecture and a Ph.D in Geography. He is also a consultant with the WHO's GIS Centre for Health.

One of the disagreements concerns The Mother’s approval of the Master Plan. Some people, including the Secretary, believe that Mother’s vision for Auroville is laid down in the Master Plan – one person even stated that she had approved it.