Dawn of a New Forest
Earth Restoration : India
THE DAWN OF A FOREST
Paul Blanchflower
Co-operating with nature brings benefits to all. (with permission from Resurgence issue 211)
IMAGINE A FOREST, in a hot and humid land that maintains shade on the ground all year round, even though the rains are only present for six months. Imagine that the climax state of this forest is a complex matrix of over 200 species of tree, shrub and liana. Imagine the myriad of faunal species that a forest like this would sustain, and need in order to function as a complete ecosystem. Imagine how you would feel if only tiny fragments of this forest remained, in areas never much bigger than a few football pitches joined together.
Then imagine the excitement and joy involved in rediscovering this forest from those fragments, and bringing those species back together in an area that will one day cover many thousands of acres. Of getting to know that forest and learning about the way humanity has interacted with it over millennia; the medicines contained within, the folk tales woven through it, and the characters still alive that are infused with it. With all of these imaginings you are glimpsing the story of the forest of Auroville.
The story begins some thirty years ago on the coastal plains of south India, in the state of Tamil Nadu, close to a town called Pondicherry. It was here that a new township, an international city, was to be built as an experiment to "speed the process of human unity". This city was called Auroville and it was the dream of a spiritual teacher who was simply called ‘the Mother’. She called the people of the world to come and manifest a new community, a ‘City of Dawn’.
The area chosen for this project had poor, sandy soil, used annually for dry land cropping of a subsistence kind. Over the years the fields had been subjected to erosion from wind and the heavy monsoon rains which, in many places, resulted in the creation of desertified wasteland. It was because of this, perhaps, that many of the local landowners were happy to sell their lands and allow Auroville to manifest.
People came from all over the world, and they stayed for many reasons, but they all realized one thing; that the environment was harsh and it needed to be cared for in new ways, so that people could live there and create the city. Thus began the process of environmental restoration. The Aurovillians planted trees — any trees that they could find; they collected seeds, and they cared for the seedlings, they watered them and protected them from the goat and cow herds that wandered the plateau and foraged for what little vegetation remained.
Over the past thirty years the saplings have grown into trees and the environment has been gradually restored. The harshness of the local climate has been ameliorated: no longer do the dust storms, prevalent in the pioneering years, come in the hot summer months. They are a thing of legend, recounted in stories by the older Aurovillians. The daily search for firewood by local women has been transformed from scavenging for a scant resource into the collection of an abundant commodity closer to home. The exotic pioneer tree species which were first planted also provide a constant supply of good quality timber that is used in construction and joinery and gives employment to many local craftsmen and women.
As well as the benefits for people, the growing forests provide habitat for an ever-increasing population of animals. The original bird survey of Auroville sighted forty species; today that number has grown to over one hundred. The populations of mammals and reptiles have increased many-fold with jackal, mongoose and monitor lizards, snakes and squirrels, civet cats and chameleons a common sight. In recent months confirmed reports of porcupines indicate that the larger fauna are finding their way back.
The forest is a living testament to the possibilities of human co-operation with nature. Whilst the development of the city continues, there is still a subculture within the community that is devoted to the forest. Over the years the process itself has become more refined. The passion of those early years, though still there, has been mixed with some science. Once the major imperative of shade was achieved, people had more time to reflect on the type of forest that was suited to the area and so in this way a new programme began — one of identifying the indigenous forest of the region and starting to painstakingly restore it.
WORK HAD ALREADY been started by the British Imperial Forestry Service and also by the French Institute in Pondicherry. They recognized a distinctive floristic community, and gave it the designation Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (tdef). It is a forest that is predominantly evergreen, with short, squat trees, buttressed at the base to withstand the violent cyclonic winds that come in from the Bay of Bengal. The trees hold on to their leaves throughout the long dry period, carefully putting out flushes of new growth in response to the uncertain summer rains, sometimes having to wait until the late rains of the October monsoon before they can grow even a tiny bit.
Along with these harsh climatic factors, the region has been densely populated for countless generations by fishermen and farmers. By the end of the colonial period the extent of the forest was reduced to 1% of its normal distribution, and in subsequent times all of these reserve forests have become highly degraded. The timber trees of any size were removed and then the remaining scrub was harvested for firewood and subjected to constant browsing by goats and cows. The only surviving forest areas that have any resemblance to their pristine state are widely scattered pockets around temples, that rarely exceed a few acres. Nevertheless, in these temple-forests the evergreen species still exist and produce fruits and seeds, and just as importantly provide inspiration for the people concerned with the future, for in these sacred groves one can still experience the harmony of nature’s complexity. However, these forests in the wild are still in a precarious position — over the past years none of the remnants has rejuvenated; in fact the majority have become more degraded as land is encroached upon further for agricultural development, and trees are harvested for fuel wood and fodder.
It was knowing this rather bleak picture that a small team of people within the community began the project of restoring the tdef within the Auroville greenbelt. The remnants of the forest were visited and comprehensive species lists compiled for each area. The species were studied, collected, identified and preserved in a herbarium; seeds were collected for each species; germination tests were made and the seedlings cultivated in nurseries. Come monsoon, these species were planted out in the forest areas of the township, either as under-planting in the pioneer forest or on new land that the community had acquired. Slowly a picture of the original ecology emerged, the planting programmes became more precise and the process of restoration ecology became a ‘mimic’ of the natural processes that would occur on the land if nature were left to herself over aeons of time.
Concurrent with these botanical studies, other research into the ethno-botanical relationships that the local culture has evolved with the forest was carried out. Networks of traditional healers were established whereby information was shared and recorded. The use of plants in crafts and in religious ceremonies was documented. In this way a complete picture developed of the forest and its relationship with people. Four hundred species of tree, shrub and herb are utilized in traditional medicine practised by the villagers, from householders and midwives to specialists treating bone fractures, poisonous bites and eye ailments.
In India modern medical health systems can offer primary health-care to only 30% of the rural population. Plant-based indigenous health systems can help with providing real health security as they are very much alive and are evolving and adapting to modern needs. This information on bio-resource use represents a valuable record for posterity and also a phenomenal bank of information that can be drawn upon to resolve current predicaments.
THE WORK CONTINUES, and many challenges remain, to secure the future of the tdef outside the boundaries of the Auroville township. The work in the villages of our local bioregion is ongoing and a major part of this outreach challenge is the education of the local children, making them more aware of their natural heritage, and encouraging young people to take up the knowledge of their elders with respect to the uses of the plants. At present a project to develop a shared forest management with the villages that are proximal to the remnant forests is being developed with the help of the European Commission.
Auroville is connected to over fifty conservation sites in peninsular India, and is all the time looking for ways to increase the area of protected sanctuary forest, through interaction with government agencies, private firms or individuals. It is a long, slow, uphill battle, as the general trend in the subcontinent is one of development and short-term gains, in order to increase the material living standards of the rural population. However, within the greenbelt of Auroville the forest is beginning to be secure. Each year around 50,000 more seedlings find a nook or cranny to call home. Survival rates are good now that the environment has been improved by the initial plantings.
There is plenty still to do to ensure the future of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. The sanctuary in Auroville has inspired many people and will continue to do so in the future. Government policies are changing, becoming more aware of the need to protect the environment, so that what has been learned in Auroville can be handed on. Within Auroville the forest provides a healing and nutritive landscape that contributes to the well-being of the city itself, and to that of human unity. In the long term, the solution lies not with cures of the malady, but with a transformation of the cause. Humanity has to learn to live within nature not above it. •
For further information on the Auroville project visit the website at:
Paul Blanchflower arrived in Auroville in March 1991, having completed his degree in Ecology and Forestry at Edinburgh University. His has been one of the driving forces behind the Auroville forest restoration work ever since.
