Courtesy: Nihit
Initially, when I was asked if I wanted to visit Sadhana Forest near Auroville, I was reluctant. I was on a holiday and it didn’t seem like a fun place. It definitely was not a holiday place. It was a bunch of serious people who really cared about the environment and were doing something about it. And I was glad that I went.
The path to reach the community, Sadhana Forest, was a little curvy mud road with lots of trees on either side. The forest is a seventy acre land, west of Puducherry-Tindivanam Road. Aviram and his wife, Yorit, along with their little daughter Osher, settled in this place in December 2003 and this has been their home ever since. As a result of their reforestation project, within five years this once-barren land has come alive with more than twenty thousand trees of different species belonging to the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest.
Reforestation is just one part of their work. The major chunk consists of water conservation and prevention of soil erosion. They have dug ponds, bunds and tanks to prevent the rain water from flowing down into the sea and, at the same time, increasing the ground water level. The ground water level around Sadhana Forest has risen by six meters in the last few years – a remarkable achievement in a region where the water table is going down by a meter every year.
The two major principles that the community follows are: 1. No exchange of money 2. Minimizing their own carbon footprint.
Everything in this community is done in a way such that there is minimum damage to the environment. They live in eco-friendly, thatched roof accommodation. I was thrilled to see the library and the main hall, built entirely from bamboo, done up so aesthetically. The food is pure vegan. All waste is composted or recycled. Rocket stove, which has a high efficiency in burning wood, is used for cooking, and bread is baked in a tyre-and-brick oven. Electricity is generated using solar energy. When the sun is not very kind, cycling on a cycle arrangement is done to meet the power requirement. When we visited, they were experimenting with improving the soil quality, growing food and cultivating spirulina. They continually look for innovative ways to conserve water, electricity and energy in general.
Living in Sadhana can certainly change one’s outlook on life. As I was leaving, I couldn’t help but recall the words that I had seen written on a board there. “To love the life you live, you must live the life you love.”
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