May Day, the first of May celebrated all over India as a spring fertility festival; commemorated also as “International Worker’s Day” with its historical significance. Maharashtra and Gujarat celebrate their statehood on this day. Water and the sad story of Fatehpur Sikri: a magnificant city from 1585, abandoned shortly after its completion, due to a paucity of water, remaining as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Water and the future of Auroville: shall we heed anticipatory, long-term future planning options? Or repeat the FATE of FATEhpur Sikri? Read more

Everyone has time to donate their lives to a worthy cause. Thinking about the priority of the physical human life, just after the air there's water. Thinking only about who needs water to grow up the edible plants we use to eat everyday, it's easy to connect all together in this problem: Auroville water is always less clean and more difficult to store, even in the aquifer. So do we care about it? Nathalie (in the english interview), is one who does care, and for the first time spoke at a meeting: the one of Water Read more

Water for Auroville, an urgent issue! by Gilles Boulicot was at Cinema Paradiso. It emerged that there is more than one way to solve the problem of scarcity of water in the Auroville land and around it. To face this problem it is important to use multi-sourcing. There are many ways to improve today’s situation. First of all the relationship with neighbouring towns is a necessity for the hydrogeological environment. There is only one for the entire region. Today at 3 pm in Citadine is a meeting to form a group of people to manage about it. Read more

Joss Brooks, one of the first Aurovillians, told us a heartening story of 'greening Auroville' and the lessons learnt along the way. What was is it that made people come from all over the world to convert almost 60 acres of arid land outside Chennai into a thriving green space for plants, birds, animals as well as the local people? And how did they do it? Joss speaks of grit and determination, of learning from the locals, and of the satisfaction that comes by loving the miraculous world that's a gift to humanity. Read more

In today's news we feature short interview with John from help desk for cyclone at Town Hall .... And Andrea spoke with visiting guest artist Carrie Dashow about her work and presentation she will held on Friday 6th of January at 5pm at Multi Media Center in Town Hall....Rosine Debode, a Belgian national, who was one of the early Aurovilians, passed away peacefully in Auroville in the early morning of January 4, 2012. She made a unique and generous contribution to Auroville with her life. Thank you Rosine for all your love and support. . Read more

Auroville Council member Sonja gives an update on what's current on their table; not surprisingly, a lot on cyclone relief. Info on making a donation provided in the news; see more at cyclonehelp@auroville.org.in. Cyclone Relief Services information listed for water, generators, solar, tree clearing, housing and help in the Greebelt. Matrimandir closed to visitors until Pongal, mid-January. Wind/Solar Renewable Energy Design Workshop coming up on January 9 to 14. For more images open the READ MORE section. Read more

Walk trough Quiet Healing Centre was in a way relief after disastrous areas in communities in Auroville because beside few fallen trees Quiet looks almost as it was. Luckily they got mostly palm trees, which are known for their flexibility and endurance in strong tropical winds. In interview with Guy we found out that the major problem after tropical cyclone Thane is if they would be allowed to fix and erect their fence or not. Quiet hopes that they will find optimal solution for both parties trough ongoing negotiations with local fishermen. Read more

Last Friday Sadhana Forest celebrated its 8th birthday with many activities and workshops through the day. Amongst other activities, Aviram, the founder of Sadhana Forest presented to the community of Sadhana Forest, their vision and details on all their projects. Sadhana stands for : veganism as food choice, gift economy, inclusiveness to all and technical sustainable living. One of the proiects is Forest Ambassadors, which is a global network for individuals who are inspired to act on local environmental and social issues. Read more

8th birthday of Sadhana Forest was really and occasion to celebrate. In an interview with Aviram, co-founder of Sadhana Forest Community we can hear short overview of what was going on last eight years with this so successful project of aforesatation. The fact is that this self sustainable community is great inspiration to many on this planet, and as Aviram says"..be sure that everything is possible, believe in Grace and Divine will support you..." on Puja question what have been his plan of action. Many visitors celebrated with Sadhana. Read more

An interview with Aryadeep about the saving and protecting Auroville land identity. To create good situations for all the stake holders, to secure the whole hearted cooperation of all and for protecting the lands for the appropriate and unified development of Auroville together with the appropriate, beautiful and ideal development of the surrounding population and localities. The COLLAP newsletter it is published by Auroville Land Fund to give more information about the land topic. Download the latest 2 issue here: COLAAP 48 , COLAAP 49

Dr. Brahmanand Mohanty, expert in the field of energy concentrated his talk at Green Practise on energy from global perspective down to regional. If we could follow the imense progress in last century, the fact is that within it we've discovered oil, and we also managed to spent 50% of world reserves of it. Dr. Mohanty sees Aruoville as the right platform for the spiritual revival or regeneration of the city. Now its the time to work on sustainable regenerative systems with green infrastructure, for building, transportation, water supply ...

From the participatory session held last week by Dr. Brahmanand Mohanty, expert in the field of energy, hear an excerpt of his talk; he focused on the future of mankind, which will be determined if man will switch from oil based reliance to green based practices for energy. His talk in its entirety may be heard later today. The Karuvadikuppam dumpsite: a plea to sign the petition letter, all those suffering from its toxic waste fumes. The text of this letter is available on Auronet; soon at public places (Solar Kitchen, Town Hall, etc.) Read more

Peter Head, Director of Arup and Executive Chairman of Ecological Sequestration Trust, United Kingdom, sheds light on Regenerative Urban Development based on his personal journey. Peter has been to 29 countries analayzing and discussing the issues of achieving more sustainable ways of living . A Civil Engineer by profession, he discussed ways to take some of Auroville's experience and sharing it with the rest of the world and across India besides policies and investments needed in India in fashioning townships to improve quality of life. Read more

In this talk the landscape architects Achva and David Stein from New York that were invited by the Auroville planning section L'Avenir to help to prepare a plan for the development of the Green Belt are presenting some of their works to explain their approaches to landscape planning. They have been involved in large scale projects all over the world including India, have won many awards with their work and have now spend more than a month in Auroville to study the local situation. Read more

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which started in Geneva at the beginning of the week is about to end. Decisions regarding the Endosulfan pesticide ban are still pending. Njal, who has been raising awareness regarding Endosulfan's impact on the environment and health in Auroville/bio-region, revealed the arguments from the side of the chemical industries. Plus how it's difficult for farmers to understand the impact of Endosulfan. Njal hopes the 1000 signatures he gathered for the petition (sent to Geneva) against Endosulfan will result in a change for the best. Read more

As a kick-off for the presentation of the Auroville Sustainable Agriculture Plan (ASAP), within the next few months, Auroville Radio presents a series of eleven interviews concerning the foods we eat in Auroville. What were the ideas in the old days of Auroville regarding agriculture and sustainable foods? Which agricultural developments did Auroville been through since the first Aurovillians started to change the dusty plains into the forest it is today? How is the present situation in Auroville's greenbelt and what is it capable of? And, perhaps most important, what are the challenges for the future?... Read more

Lively Up Your Earth, eco - music festival, the first of its kind, last weekend in January at Solitude Farm, once again brought lots of people together. Krishna, the founder of the Solitude, and member of the band, Emergence, told us the feedback was warm. Everybody enjoy the diversity of the music and workshops and the many different offered products...all liked the multi-faceted note of the festival, which really joined ecology awareness, art and music with common thread. This way the festival was more than a social gathering - it was really a celebration of all the ideas, and people who resonate with them. Read more

Larry Old School came in the shape of a soft intermezzo. Paul and Larry, on two acoustic guitars. Larry's voice, slightly hoarse, resembled Bob Dylan's. They brought back some almost forgotten memories of songs; music we heard long ago. But listening closely to the lyrics, they might be as fresh and "in time” as they were in the early sixties, when it all started. Read more

Twiglight 10, a festival of short films it will be held at Bharat Nivas on 29th and 30th of Decmeber, and we would have a chance to see some excellent work of students from Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication in New Dehli. Before the screening on both nights will be panel discussions, and at Galerry Square Circle, Kale Kendra tonight at 4pm is an inauguration of photography exhibition. At Arka library tonight at 7pm and also on Thursday children and puppet theater lovers can see classical fairy tale "Goldilocks” by KOEKLA puppet theater from Holland. Read more

Rainy Saturday afternoon, but those who decided to experience the magic of puppet theatre were not disappointed. Sadly were only handful of children present. Children of Alankuppam brought to us four short stories: Sea Elephant and Two Boys, Kangaroo and Elephant are Good Friends, Many More Trees is What We Need, and Wonderful Garden. Laura, a volunteer from United Kingdom, who spent last three months at Mohanam Cultural Center helped children to put their stories in shape for the puppet theatre. The scenery and music, and special sound effects were done by Bamboo Research Centre, and Mohanam Sound Crew. Read more

Kireet from the Canyon Erosion Control Project said since the beginning the Aurovilians have tried to control erosion and fresh water flowing into the sea by planting trees, building bunds and canyons, and using other methods. At the Green Practices workshop, he said the canyons came under the purview of the government and they built the check dams. These dams, Kireet pointed out, were in bad shape. The dams were rebuilt with available materials. He described the efforts involved in building these check dams and the benefits of which Auroville starting reaping slowly. Download presentation

About five years back, the environmentalists in Chennai won a case against development of the 58-acre stretch of ecologically sensitive Adyar creek. Then, the Tamil Nadu government approached Auroville to help restore the creek. At a presentation during the Green Practices workshop, Joss Brooks of Pitchandikulam Forest, who is part of the Adyar Poonga project, said Chennai was just a series of wetlands that has overgrown now. He said the restoration of the creek meant cleaning up of the Adyar River as one was not possible without the other. Many Aurovilians have helped to draw up a master plan for the same. Joss went on to explain how the entire project panned out. Download presentation

Today's news features an interview with Guy who works whole-heartedly to bring awareness to the concerns of the planet, specifically the beach, beach erosion in particular to an extent that cannot much longer be tolerated. Announcements include a talk tomorrow by Georges Van Vrekhem: 'Being Human and the Copernican Principle.' And about dogs: a wake-up call that unwanted dogs cannot be handled simply by a call to Auroville's Integrated Animal Care; each of us has the possibility and duty to be part of the solution. Those who appreciate and keep animals must sterilize their cat or dog; that's tackling the problem at its root cause.

The earliest settlers on the land of Auroville: Debora and Bob. Listen to Debora reminisce about those days, back in 1968....Forecomers is the name Mother gave to that area and Debora and Bob were those pioneers to come first. Under primitive conditions they built a basic strructure on an arid plain overlooking a canyon, chosen for its beauty. Water was delivered daily by truck which meant boiling it for drinking as well as learning to bathe with perhaps two cups of the precious commodity, until a bore well was prepared. Debora, visiting Auroville today, finds the present living conditions indeed luxurious compared to 40 years ago. She also describes meeting the Mother.

Tuesday, 12th of October and in news we feature an excerpt of interview with Khaled form Solitude Farm, which offers many ways of interactions between them and Aurovillians beside growing crops, vegetables and fruits on a natural way. On Saturdays they offers tours to anybody who would be interested to grown his/hers own permaculture garden in order to supply the household with fresh organic vegetables with not so much work and hassle as usual gardening requires. Tonight the European classical music lovers can treat themselves with German movie at Cinema Pradiso – Mozart “The Magic Flute”, and tomorrow at same place we can see a documentary about victims and their pets who suffered at the time of the hurricane Katrina in USA.

Friday 17th of September, and in the interview with Tineke, member of the Working Comity we heard some details about yesterday's visit of the chief of the Indian Army Gen Vijay Kumar Singh with his wife and many other officials. The weekend is about to start, Tamil tradition is to do pooja on Fridays, but here in Auroville we're usually busy with cultural events. Tomorrow we will celebrate World Bamboo Day, which will start with the planting of 100 bamboo plants on different locations, continue at Solar Kitchen, and finish at Visitor Center in the evening.

Today the three day seminar Auroville Green Practice is starting, and is meant for external participants to hear Auroville speakers on many different areas from forestry, water management, environmental issues, renewable energy...Our team is making all the best to publish as soon would be possible the major peaks of the seminar. Beside that we can see a movie in the evening in Cinema paradiso at Town Hall or at sunset we can listen to “Savitri” at Amphitheater at Matrimandir or we can join the ethnic chanting at Verite at 7pm with Ana, Tiago and friends

Five years ago, Aviram launched an indigenous reforestation project, and he speaks about the link between growing trees and the development of the people involved. The project is run as sustainably as possible, with a four-bike gym used to generate electricity when solar is not enough. There is no electricity in the houses - the community centre is the only building with light, meaning that people naturally gather there in the evenings. He says everyone can contribute to global efforts in small ways but that on the other hand it may well be that some radical measures are also needed.

Today's news features an interview with Alon on the Integral Sustainability Platform in Auroville. Also announced in the news is the workshop “Fate or Choice?” from March the 19th to the 20th, going deeper into the mystery of concealed dynamics and rediscovering your own choice. This Thursday at Convergence is “Learning from Nature”, including the exploration into various topics relating to the environment, ecology and perceptions of different world-views. Also on Thursday will be the “Sampradayam”, a salute to Bharata Natyam by choreographer Mallika Sarabhai at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium at 8pm.

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Dans le sillage d'Auroville, d'autres initiatives bourgeonnent... En pleine savane africaine, au milieu d'une végétation sahélienne clairsemée, sur des sols pauvres, voici le premier Aurovillage... Hassan est venu pour la première fois à Auroville il y a 25 ans. Après avoir passé quelques mois à Auroville, il  rentre en France pour faire une formation en pépinière et arboriculture avec l'idée en tête de revenir s'installer à Auroville. Mais le destin en a décidé autrement. En effet son chemin à croisé celui de Pierre Rabih qui à l'époque montait un projet en agro-écologie au Burkina Faso. Il passa un vingtaine d'année en Afrique de l'Ouest et créa Durant toute ces ann?

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