Before and After

Auroville Before Reforestation:

                                                      

 Auroville After Reforestation:  (http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/database/case-study/?id=10)

"Around two hundred years ago, the Auroville plateau and its surrounding region were covered in forest. In fact, a stone was discovered in Kilianur dating from 1750 that described the local king hunting for elephants and tigers in the nearby forest. In 1825, trees were felled in the Jipmer area between Auroville and Pondy, to drive away the tigers. Slowly the forests were cut down to build cities like Pondicherry and towns like Kalapet. Timber was used for export, and the British accelerated the deforestation process by allocating plots of land to anyone who would clear it and cultivate it for a year. Much of the land was then left fallow, and under the violent onslaught of the monsoon, erosion inevitably began. The last remaining plots of forest in the Auroville area - 2,000 mature neem trees - were cut down in the mid-1950s for timber to make boats. In less than 200 years, land that was once forested had turned into an expanse of baked red earth scarred with gullies and ravines carved by the monsoon floods. Each year tons of the remaining topsoil were swept into the nearby Bay of Bengal, and much of the land that remained became a desertified wasteland. 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, and these rarely exceed a few acres." (http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/database/case-study/?id=10)

In the 1970s, an A township of people from around the world began as people came to reforest the area. Shade was created and soil began to be more fertile as forest canopies developed and succession continued.  Sadhana Forest has continued these efforts on remaining degradaded and deserted land land that has been designated to us by the Indian government and the township of Auroville. Since the beginning of the project, water conservation has returned water to the wells of local villagers, soil has gained fertility, wildlife is thriving and about 30,000 trees have been planted.

Sadhana Forest in the beginning of the project:

 (http://www.thebetterindia.com/25578/guess-what-tourism-did-to-a-70-acre-arid-land-in-puducherry-sadhana-forest/)

Sadhana Forest more recently: 

 (http://www.thebetterindia.com/25578/guess-what-tourism-did-to-a-70-acre-arid-land-in-puducherry-sadhana-forest/)

Sadhana Forest before: 

 (http://www.thebetterindia.com/25578/guess-what-tourism-did-to-a-70-acre-arid-land-in-puducherry-sadhana-forest/)

Sadhana Forest after intervention:

 (http://www.thebetterindia.com/25578/guess-what-tourism-did-to-a-70-acre-arid-land-in-puducherry-sadhana-forest/)