Land challenge - 2002
Blow to the Auroville Green Belt, - again!
Update, Oct 5th '02
The Auroville Green Belt is a zone for organic farming and
the restoration of the original tropical evergreen forest that once graced this
area several centuries ago. As such, it is essential for creating an ecological
balance for Auroville and the neighbouring villages.
As photos on this page show you, a real estate agency from
the nearby city of Pondicherry is converting a 50-acre plot in the middle of the
Auroville Green Belt into a large-scale housing development project.
The vegetation has been slashed and burnt during these
last months. And a huge compound wall adorned with barbed wire is being built
around the area. In our overall feeling, it's as if one of Auroville's regions
is undergoing crude surgery, amputation perhaps..
Un-love and un-care
 It's not only the loss of land that hurts, but certainly also the un-love and
the un-care, the crudity with which the area is treated now - we become aware of
how much we love the land, how much we respect it. How much it is part of our
being.
Mute impotence
Needless to say that Auroville's greenworkers and other residents follow this 'landrape'
with great misgivings and mute impotence. The area, a great deal of which was
planted by the Aurovilian pioneers in the early seventies, was meant to become a
beautifully afforested botanical garden. It was to be a home for many bird
species and animals, a place of ecological research and conservation, just as
the Auroville settlements of Forecomers and Ravena, and the Success Sanctuary
directly south of the troubled area.
Money is needed to prevent this from continuing...
Rs. 1.75 crores or US $375,000 is urgently needed to
prevent this disaster.. and bring back the original tropical forest!
Thank you for your support!
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