Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

196 Designing ecological Habitats
Species are carefully planted under nets to assure that heritage plant varieties
are not adulterated by genetically-modified plants.
The Botanical Garden
Auroville has initiated a botanical garden and, with help from the European
Community, is experimenting with many varieties of trees and plants
indigenous to our area. It has a teaching component and serves as a nursery
to help regenerate areas of Tamil Nadu with beautiful plants, including
planting around villages and doing hotel landscaping as an income earner.
Farms
Auroville has more than a dozen farms. Most are organic; one even practices
some of the farming techniques taught by the Japanese natural farming
pioneer, Masanobu Fukuoka, who came to visit Auroville some years ago.
Most of the farms are part of a well-organized agricultural cooperative
called ‘Food Link’ that was set up to assure distribution of organic products
to the Auroville community. Food Link has its own quality label: ‘Made in
Auroville’ that assures consumers that the food has been grown in a healthy
and tasty way.
Environmental Education
The award-winning Children and Trees project was set up to provide books
and teaching materials to ordinary people on the importance of trees, land
contouring, the dangers of pesticides, and the role that women can play in
protecting the environment. Teaching materials also deal with the problem
of human overpopulation and the importance of limiting human numbers
to allow greater diversity for other species as well. The Children and Trees
project received a Rolex citation and has been replicated in other parts of
India, Kenya, Chile, China, and Malaysia. One of the books – What is a Tree
– has been reproduced in forty different languages and is used all over India,
as well as abroad.
Water Harvest
Auroville’s Water Harvest unit has done a study of the bioregion and
works to establish water features in the landscape through large-scale land
contouring. Goals are to assure that monsoon runoff is reduced and that
lakes remain around villages to provide more water in the hot season. The
Harvest team helps local villages to de-silt traditional water tanks and to
restore ancient irrigation systems.
Sadana Forest
A more recent project, Sadana Forest, was set up to re-vegetate a barren water
catchment area in a region adjacent to Auroville. Sadana has experimented