Wildlife

Romulus Whitaker (‘Rom’), the world-renowned herpetologist, has had a long association with Auroville. He first visited around 1970 when ‘Cow John’ showed him around what was then the beginning of what he came to see as a fantastic experiment.

A 6 metre wide road has been cleared through Auroville’s Northern Forest Area (NFA), in order to gain access to the area that has been earmarked for a 30 meter tall hill to be built from the soil excavated from the Matrimandir Lake.

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.

On 19 March, Eric Ramanujam passed away at the age of 58 in PIMS, where he had been taken due to advanced jaundice. Many of us know his beautiful and educative wild life stone paintings placed in Pitchandikulam, at the visitors walk way to the Visitors’ Centre, as well as at the toll plaza of the East Coast Road.

Aurosylle and Tim gave an informative introduction to wildlife in Auroville during a live and online event on 21st January in Bharat Nivas. Of special interest is that prior to 1972, Auroville had a count of 25 bird species.

As Auroville's forests have grown over the years, new wildlife corridors have evolved, which have brought new kinds of animals to the area. A large bear has reportedly been sighted in Pitchandikulam Forest in recent months.

Zohar (17), known to most as Zozo, might be Auroville’s youngest full time forester. He lives and works in Evergreen, where he grew up among the trees and animals.

On World Ocean Day in June, a dolphin washed up on to Sri Ma beach. “It was a young dolphin that had not died a natural death, possibly related to pollution, or to swallowed plastic,” says Satya Agrawal, a teacher in NESS school, who was catalysed by this event to start collecting waste on the beach.

Like so many Auroville projects, Annapurna farm started with a simple keet-roofed hut, no money to speak of, not many expectations but with high aspirations.

I was looking at the fluttering ribbon outside my bedroom window and thinking about Stray Feathers, a journal started by Allan Octavian Hume, the greatest ornithologist of the 19th century.

Here’s a paradox. Although Auroville remains a predominantly rural community, many Aurovilians have little knowledge of the wildlife that lives around them.

Snakes of Auroville and Pondicherry, written by Deepanam school teacher Rajeev Bhatt, is an easy introduction to the snakes that are common in this area.

Sir, With regard to Mr. Smytthe-Buckfast’s letter in the first issue of your publication, I have the following comments to make. Mr. Smytthe-Buckfast displays his appalling lack of knowledge in the field of paleontology when he states that he observed a “Pterodactyl indica” (sic) near the Matrimandir.

The flocks of birds from the North Fly away to the tip of the South. The sky in October is hesitating to rain. At that moment, that particular moment,