‘Auroville at liberty to continue development projects after Supreme Court's verdict’

PUDUCHERRY: Auroville Foundation is at liberty to continue its development of the township after the Supreme Court passed an order in its favour recently, said a release from the foundation.

"...the NGT (National Green Tribunal) vide its order (Para 125 (i)) assumed jurisdiction in the matter pertaining to Auroville. In the appeal filed by the Auroville Foundation, this direction has been stayed unconditionally and absolutely by the Hon’ble Supreme Court," said the release.

The matter pertains to clearing trees in identified project areas to implement the key projects that were pending over the years.

"As the stay on Auroville’s development caused by the NGT verdict has been lifted, there is no bar on implementing the development of projects as per the Auroville Master Plan. Auroville is now, by the Supreme Court’s recent order, at liberty to continue its development of the township," said the release.

The township estimates that a few thousand out of three million trees that Auroville has nurtured need to be felled.

"This comes to a mere 0.16 % of the total number of trees on Auroville’s land; i.e., 99.84% of the trees have not been touched. It may be appreciated that as of now, Auroville has a ratio of 1,500 trees per capita for about 2,000 Aurovillians, and a meager percent of trees are cut to implement the master plan," said the release.

Therefore, wherever trees were planted on the way can be felled when required and the wood used as timber. "These trees that were planted with the knowledge that they would need to be cut are mainly of aggressive-invasive species such as Acacia auriculiformis. To summarize, tree felling is undertaken wherever required for a project to be implemented. Auroville is being implemented as per its approved master plan as provided for in the Auroville Foundation Act," said the release.

Auroville was planned to be a town for 50,000 people from its very inception and hence needs infrastructure to be developed to make it a vibrant town as dreamt by the Mother, revolutionary freedom fighter-turned-spiritual guru Sri Aurobindo's spiritual collaborator and the founder of the Auroville.