Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF)

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.

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.

Natasha Storey is a long term Aurovilian who recently brought the Gene Keys and its Delta programme to Auroville.

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.

Last month the dried plant collection of the Auroville Herbarium moved to a new dedicated building in the Botanical Gardens. Funded by SAIIER, inaugurated this March, slowed down a bit by corona, its establishment marks a new phase in the work of preserving and classifying our indigenous flora.

Pitchandikulam Forest has issued its 2019-2020 newsletter which includes: reflective musings on the 47-year old history of Pitchandikulam Forest; the story of a monograph on the Owls of South Asia; a report on Pitchandikulam Forest’s nursery which is responsible for the growing of around 20,000 seedlings a year to help re-establish the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) in Tamil Nadu; a report on the Environmental Leadership and Skill Development Programme for 350 Rural Women; the work of Pitchandikulam Forest in building water retention landscapes and the restoration of the twin lakes of Siruseri Chennai; environmental artwork for Toyota Kirloskar Motors, Bangalore, on a 25-acres ECOZONE; and creating a master plan for an Ecopark/Nature lab and teaching space for practitioners of Restoration Ecology on a piece of land near Ousteri lake.

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.

Alan Watson Featherstone is a long-term member of the Findhorn community as well as a former Trustee of that community. He is also the Founder of Trees for Life, which has restored 10,000 acres of the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland.

Christoph Pohl grew up in Germany. He studied media technology engineering and worked in video and film post production in Hamburg and Berlin before moving to Auroville in 2008.

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.