Clearing of trees for Auroville Crown Road project resumes amid protests by a section of residents

Residents protest tree felling for Auroville's City for the Future plan, but Foundation insists it's done safely & in compliance with law.

The resumption of tree felling for the Crown Road project, a core component of the master plan that envisions Auroville as a City for the Future, has triggered another round of protests by a section of residents who allege that the process is being undertaken in an “arbitrary and unsafe manner”.

However, a spokesperson for the Auroville Foundation dismissed the charges as unfounded, saying that the entire operation was being carried out under supervision of designated teams, in compliance with law, and with reverence to the master plan.

The clearing of trees for the city plan, since the first moves were initiated by the Auroville Foundation in December 2021, has been chequered by residents’ protests, an interim stay by the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal, and subsequently a 2022 order that placed a set of conditions on Auroville undertaking the city plan.

Recently, the Auroville Foundation obtained a stay in the Supreme Court on the NGT order, paving the way for resuming tree clearance activities, even as seemingly irreconcilable differences persist among a section of residents over the manner of executing the master plan and aspects of governance. As the stay on Auroville’s development caused by the NGT verdict has been lifted, there is no bar on implementing development of projects as per the Auroville Master Plan, the Foundation said.

On Thursday, after tree clearing was carried out in core areas such as the Center Field and Solar Kitchen, the “Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly” has sought a halt to, and a reconsideration of, the tree cutting operations along the existing built portions of the Crown Road.

In e-mails to the Chairman and members of the Governing Board and the Chairperson and members of the International Advisory Council, the seven-member Wcom---which was declared elected at the culmination of a Residents’ Assembly Decision (RAD) process in 2022, but has not been recognised by the Foundation---stated that it was difficult to grasp the rationale of this decision since the road is already constructed and in use since 2009.

“The service trees were planted in the year 2002 by Aurofuture, the planning office of Roger Anger, the chief architect of Auroville, with funding from the European Commission and in accordance with the indications in the Master Plan. The plantation and the alignment were decided in anticipation of the construction of the Crown Road so that it could already be shaded with avenue trees at the time of its construction”, the mail said.