Right of Ways (RoW)

35 years ago, much of the land intended for Auroville’s future Mahasaraswati Park, located near to the Town Hall, still belonged to neighbouring Kottakarai village.

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.

Since our last issue, which focused upon the controversy over the manifestation of the Crown, there have been significant developments and activities regarding this topic.

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.

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.