CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday has extended the stay order on contentious felling of free in Auroville till December 21. Ugly scenes were witnessed recently inside Auroville where a group of residents clashed with the authorities and Auroville Foundation members for bulldozing nearly 900 trees in the name of development.
Following this, two residents — Navroz Kersasp Mody and Sandeep Vinod Sarah — moved the NGT and obtained a stay order. An internal petition signed by more than 500 Auroville residents requested for postponement of the development work on the Crown Road ‘Right of Way’ until the Auroville community would arrive at a collective agreement on a practical way forward.
Many residents emphasise that authorities are trying to bypass necessary steps set out in the Auroville master plan policy framework like the creation of the required Detailed Development Plans (DDPs), which has not yet been done. They emphasise that they want the planning process to be collaborative and environmentally conscious, in a way that recognises ground realities. They say this approach is essential for the city of Auroville to truly be an example to the world.
Suhasini Ayer, a renowned architect and winner of the Green Solutions Award at COP 26 and an Auroville resident, said, “We have presented proposals for the Crown corridor based on studies and analysis to the Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC) and Secretariat of the Auroville Foundation. We offered to collaborate with the ATDC to work on a trajectory for the Crown that takes into account their concerns for a Right of Way and accommodates the mobility and infrastructure needs while integrating watersheds/topography and existing development.
Unfortunately, some people believe that the Crown must be a perfect circle as indicated in the schematic maps in the Auroville master plan (Perspective 2025), as they believe a perfect circle has the occult power to accelerate the development of Auroville.”
This belief is being exploited by some persons and the authorities to create conflict within Auroville and to dismiss environmental concerns terming it a tool to sabotage the occult power of the master plan. The only way forward is collaboration - this is what the majority of the residents call for, Ayer added.
In the counter affidavit submitted before the NGT bench, Auroville Foundation Under-Secretary PR Srinivasamurty claimed the Crown road is a master plan ring road which is 4.3-km long. A major part of the Crown Right-Of-Way (RoW) area has already been cleared and infrastructure (electricity, water, OFC) installed. “Auroville Foundation is now clearing the last parts of the Crown RoW. The land area of the Crown RoW is only 0.36 per cent of the total Auroville master plan land area.”