Planting a forest – pioneering 1981 and Now.
From the early years til now, planting trees and forests in Auroville have been a pre-occupation -occupation for many ‘greenbelters’: plant tree saplings in the hot desert sun, green the land, create bunds to ward off rain water being washed down into the sea; engage in water and soil conservation. The result so far has been rewarding: the forest cover grew in Auroville, allowing indigenous trees species to return and with it, birds and all kinds of wild animals found their homes in the newly created green heavens.
But the work is far from over: After 30 years, much still needs to be done, new plots are getting integrated into Auroville and more than half of the land of the envisioned ‘greenbelt’ is waiting to become ‘Auroville lands’ as well.
Young people from all over the world find their homes here and engage in green work. Our planet needs these ecological efforts desperately, to re-grow green lungs for the well-being of its inhabitants. !
Tine: Planting trees in Auroville: 1981
My heart is glad as I cycle the burnt red soil of Auroville. I do not know why I feel happy. My gladness is causeless! It is hot but I feel great in this desert. Little did I know then that I had just discovered the land that would be my home forever!
I had arrived in the ‘greenbelt’ of Auroville, although it wasn’t much green in those days. I could see the horizon and between the blue sky and red hot land was sand, more sand and a few palmyra trees.
At that time there were about 300 Aurovilians, mostly French, living in Auroville. Being brought up in a big German city, I always liked to be in countryside, trekking in the mountains and the like, and Auroville in 1981 certainly had pristine, beautiful nature. There were no cashew topes with poison spraying yet. The land was eroded and its hard core was exposed; it looked barren. It was a totally different life, away from supermarkets, underground metros, traffic social events and the acute utility of consumerism and commerce! With just a few personal belongings one lived in rich harmony amidst nature and various wild animals, in a simple hut with keet roof, enveloped in silence. It was heaven-like and we lacked absolutely nothing! There was this inner call, something stronger than any call I had felt before. And there was that certitude. Then it became clear that it was The Mother who was calling me. I simply knew Her and I was grateful for the call. The unending adventure started with lessons in Sri Aurobindo’s terminology offered by an ashramite, and gradually I understood where I had come.
The first tree I planted, I remember, was ‘Psychological Perfection’ (plumeria) because this tree does not need much water but has sweetly fragrant flowers. It is still there more than 35 years later! We needed food in Auroville – organic food – and in Aurogreen we planted many fruit trees like lemon, mango, chikoo (sapodilla), banana, avocado, and jackfruit trees. I learned about the tropical trees which grow here and were so strikingly different from the trees from the cold climate. I was amazed how quickly these trees grew. I also successfully grew vegetables using cow dung as manure!
There wasn’t much else to do in these early years than to make the land green again and work at the Matrimandir, besides reading the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Few workshops and handicrafts existed. There was the Health Center and a few schools. There was a lot of time. There was no phone, no TV, no newspaper — the world beyond Auroville almost did not exist for me. I had no idea what was going on ‘outside’, but I was never bored. It was almost blissful. Time lost its meaning. Almost 10 years went by before I went back to Germany for a visit. Auroville at that time was already enduring hardships, as forces that ran counter to the vision of Auroville were trying to extinguish the growing flame-seed. The battle was on…
Growing conscious is serious work. It is never ending and constant. Inner and outer discoveries are made which are almost always different from what one thinks or expects … It is impossible to escape progress!
Jan: stewarding newly acquired land in 2016
Jana and I became the stewards of the recently obtained land next to Fertile and Fertile Field (where we live). We first created an entrance to the new land and secured it temporarily with mulus and bamboo. At the moment we are building a proper fence with granite pillars and mesh because we have some problems with an old man from the village who is used to bring his cows there for eating the grass. Of course we don’t want that because the cows also eat the young seedlings and we are creating a forest there. At the moment there are still a lot of cashew trees on that land, but already mixed with work trees and some teak trees. We managed to plant a hundred trees on the land. In total we planted eight hundred trees in our forest and at the moment we having a hard time watering them because of the lack of good rain (the last monsoon provided only 8% of normal rainfall). Our goal for the new land is for the (monoculture, chemical-intensive) cashew trees to eventually die when the other trees grow higher, because the cashews need open space and a lot of light. So we are turning the cashew field slowly into forest – but this will of course take time.
Best regards.
