'What is the worlds biggest pest? Its the human being' Njal, who has lived in Auroville for 22 years, is trying to create environmental awareness and is fighting the chemical treatment of Cashew plants inside and around Auroville. Njal, der seit über 22 Jahren in Auroville lebt, will aufklären. Mit seiner Awareness Campaign versucht er, die Zusammenhänge von Krankheiten und den chemischen Pestiziden aufzudecken und die Dorfbewohner zu überzeugen, dass natürliche Mittel gesünder, effektiver und besser für Natur, Mensch und Tiere sind. Read more

The rice harvest at Solitude has started, and the farms volunteers from many different countries have begun to work in the rice paddy field. Only organic vegetables and grains are grown in Solitude, always following the principle of biodiversity and crop variety. How do the volunteers like the hard work in the field? Listen to the sounds of the rice field, the workers impressions, and Josh, who explains the philosophy behind the rice cultivation and the current situation. Anyone is welcome to join the rice harvest if they are interested. Read more

Opening presentation on 'Mission Auroville': an experiment in cultural geography by 6 Polish artists who are visiting Auroville for 2 months. Vocabulary of culture texts produced in Poland often deals with questions on historical and personal fears and mishappenings. The project aims at confronting these kinds of attitudes with utopian, optimistic and future-oriented reality of Auroville. The project is a colaboration between Museum of Art in Lodz and Kala Kendra Gallery with support from Goldex Poldex and the Adam Mickiewicz Insitute. Read more

AV Cyclone Response Team strongly request the cooperation of all residents regarding handling of Auroville's wood and timber. They're asking us NOT TO SELL AUROVILLE WOOD OR EXCHANGE IT FOR LABOR. All Auroville wood, or its value, will eventually be utilized to rebuild Auroville. We should understand that if one choose to sell or exchange Auroville wood on his own, one cannot expect reimbursement for rebuilding costs such as clearing, ... Dr. Elisabeth from USA will have a presentation on Friday 13th at 5pm in White Hall, Bharat Nivas. Read more

When the cyclone is on its way there's nothing a farmer can do. He can't evacuate crops. Krishna from Solitude says amongst others that now is the time to understand destruction, it is time for new birth, where we can make a step forward and what have been destroyed can be rebuild better, with more vision, more intelligence...a new birth...Krishna knows that it will take them three months before they will get some crops rotating again, and a year to get back to the level that things normally going on. But "you smile and go the best you can.." Read more

Today an interview with Danny is the feature; Danny, well-known as the founder of WellPaper, now a member of the newly formed Auroville Council: he speaks about juggling the various aspects of his life along with highest aspirations for the good of the larger community. B for the Cooperatif Cosmique (users of the Aura) and Zero Waste speaks about the Aura coming out on 1-1-2012, a year in which changes worldwide will take place...Auroville Cleanup Group calls for volunteers to clean up litter and for education to change attitude and behavior. Read more

Today's news comes directly from the last Green Column published at News and Notes. First, an update on Auroville Botanical Garden and their interesting projects and needs: starting for hands to work. From the work of green Peace India we have two very alarming news: the BRAI bill, that will give green light to GM crops and the dangerous of it and the government pushing to approval of coal mining in dense forest areas of central India. If you want to know more, please see www.greenpeaceindia.org. A big thank to Isa, Lisbeth and Bridgitte. Read more

On 23rd November 2011 BSNL inaugurated a Wi-Max tower at the old Tindivanam road near the Hanuman statue. Auroville is within the coverage area of this tower. Recently, an expert committee of the Government of India has recommended that radiation from cell towers be declared as a pollution. Wi-Max is a new communication technology similar to cellular communications and the new tower adds to the pollution in Auroville. This is a cause for serious concern as it threatens the bio diversity created by planting of million trees over four decades. Read more

The Green News Today brings together three very important topics: CSA, Wangari Maathai and Bottled Water. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a iniciative that connects consumers and farmers and Auroville has it own project and we share some details about it. A world wide Tree planting initiative took place in honor of Wangari Maathai. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree and was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel peace Prize. To finish, some very interesting facts about bottled water. Read more

Today's news features three different topics connected with Auroville, Brazil and a movie. First we have the steps on how to use EM (Effective Microorganism) in agriculture. For 2012 an international event will happen in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to discuss sustainability, poverty and development. Is the Rio + 20, organized by the UN to continue with the discussions started at the Eco 92, also in Rio. And a documentary that is live changing: Waste Land, that shows the life of waste pickers in Brazil and how can art change their life. Read more

Pashi made a presentation on possiblilities of growing Bamboo grass using organic fertilizers in Auroville wastelands and shared the experience of cultivating bamboo in different soil and water conditions. He also spoke about biomass being a sustainable source of reliable energy and how bamboo and woody material can be used effectively for generation of energy. He elaborated on the ecological and economic advantages of cloning and culturing Bamboo as against Casuarina which takes far more space and is less productive.

Auroville is a universal playground that offers us richness of sounds as well as human diversity. And we were playing. In the Creative Radio workshop, we were playing with sounds - listening to the morning sounds of waking nature, bees buzzing, sounds of children playing with grains of sand, passing through sports grounds listening to the boisterous cries of kids engrossed in their games. We ended our sound journey with the flowing water at lotus pond at Matrimandir. Read more

Adrien, Elsa and Sophie, interms from the National School of Landscaping of Versailles in France have been working with Tow Development Council / L'Avenir d'Auroville, Road Service and Marie since June on a design for the Mahalakshmi Park. On thursday 18th of August in Conference Room in Town Hall we had a chance to see the presentation of their work. Fresh and interesting concept they presented was warmly welcomed by the audience, and presentation itself was followed by lively discussion. Posters are on display at Town Hall . Read more

L'AVenir d"Auroville / Town Development Council invites us At Town Hall Conference Room tomorrow, Thursday 18th at 4pm where will be a presentation of Mahalakshmi Park. The concept was created by three interns from the National School of Landscaping of Versailles, France. Adrien, Elsa and Sophie have been working with TDC/ Avenir and Road Service and Marie since June on a design for the Mahalakshmi Park which will stretch from SK to Arka area. At Svedame Hibiscus Art Village Project invites us on Saturday to the music concert of Yemadas. Read more

We've met Catherine the Green Group coordinator, and Martanda from the Forest Group to find out about life in the wild. These modern day foresters may live off the main grid but by producing their own energy they maintain an up-to-date lifestyle. In this podcast, they also talk about the beauty and the difficulties of maintaining and protecting the surrounding forest. Read more

Gino in Discipline farm shows us a bee hive and explains how he became part of the project of rising awareness about the actual situation of our bees here in Auroville. Honey is not only a nourishing wonder, it is also anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and anti-oxydant. We learn from the behavior of the bees, seeing how, all their life, they share the same small amount of space, in a community where they evolve from the job of cleaning the hive to the higher one of looking for pollen in flowers, until they attain the final goal of taking care of the Mother, the Queen Bee. Read more

Younger children of Deepanam School prepared for the end of the year their own unique presentation of their project works. The youngest ones were visiting Matrimandir, while elder were researching their own social and biological environment and others were busy by visiting services and work units of Auroville. Presentation was for their school friends, holders or representatives of units and services they visited and for teachers. 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

Awakening the Dreamer Symposium is a tool developed by Pachamama Alliance to "awake" the participants, and to stimulate changes. Through participation in this program, people are encouraged to find their unique and powerful role as agents of change in creating a new future. Ethan, Bindu and Andrea shortly introduced Pachamam Alliance and its purpose, and what Awakening the Dreamer means to them - either to bring personal transformation, inspire people to the highest, lead to real changes in each one's life... Read more

Anand Kumar talk on Mutation II A Clearing was touching biology point of mutation. As a biologist performing his work in genetic, infertility, cancer and hormonal investigation he started to ask himself, after reading Sri Aurobindo work twenty years back, what is the meaning of all life. Sri Aurobindo wrote that tradition of changes is the oldest tradition, but Kumar noted that tradition of mutation is actually the oldest. As he sees tradition of mutation created us, and it will take us back to origin. He reminded us that DNA are the basic units, made out of 4 the same molecules for all beings, from which either virus or a man can be created. Read more

The news today features Rom Whitaker who visits Auroville once again to present his newest film on a subject that attracts and repels most of us: snakes. Rom demystifies some of our fears by identifying which snakes are poisonous, which snakes are aggressive and how important it is if bitten to remain quiet, still and be taken for an injection of anti-venom. And, to have torchlight when walking about at night. Announcements include two events for tonight: at Kalabhumi, Cabaret Theatre 7 pm to 10. Also tonight at SAWCHU Improvisational Theatre, beginning at 7.30 pm. 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

Today's news features an interview with Dr. Karen Litfin talking about a book she is preparing on the eco-village, as an answer to the need for sustainability. Announcements include a musical vening at Kala Kendra in Bharat Nivas this evening, concluding Celestine's Photo Exhibition and Installation. And, 29th Jan. 'Lively Up Your Earth' Festival: help is still, at this late date, needed: volunteers welcome. The final meeting to get involved on Monday 24th January, 5 pm at Solitude. And, a talk and tour of Pebble Garden which is about sustainable horticulture, cultivating difficult land, maintaining and generating biodiversity. Read more

The news of today features a sign of the times: frogsong, as mimicked by the children of Alankuppam Village as they enact stories from their culture pertaining to awareness of ecological issues. Announcements: Banner Bags by Arthena created from Litter Free Auroville banners, another call from the Green Centre for Saturday Market volunteers, a ponderous point from the Auroville Council on housing matters and, Narad's exhibition 'Of Flowers with their Spiritual Significances.' Read more

Shama Dalvi, an Aurovilian architect, gave a presentation during the Green Practices Workshop about a rain water harvesting project at Yelagiri. She spoke briefly on different types of rainwater harvesting systems and the system chosen for the project at Amaidhi homes. Shama explained two types of harvesting techniques, the active and passive, and gave various reasons for choosing the latter. Giving more details about the entire structure of the vacation homes, she described the nitty-gritties of how the rain water was harvested. Erosion was the biggest problem and this was stabilised by using granites and creating artificial waterfalls to reduce the water force. Download presentation

Akash Heimlich is a micro-electronics and software programmer, who co-founded EV Future in 2009. At the Green Practices Workshop, he spoke about his experiments with Aquaponics, which is a system of agriculture that involves simultaneous cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a symbiotic environment. The water consumption in this system is less, as the fish tank water is used for cultivation and usage of chemicals can also be avoided. To learn more, download presentation

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

At the Green Practices workshop, Gilles Boulicot of Auroville Centre for Scientific Research said water management is a challenging subject and in today’s context, it has to be related to sustainability. The problems of water management are universal. In India, conflict over water is sometimes acute because it’s managed by the states and not a central authority. Gilles explains the coastal zone issues facing India in detail. He points out that the ground water has decreased drastically due to excessive drilling of borewells, which in turn has led to sea water intrusion. This is a matter of big concern as it is very difficult to reverse this phenomenon. Gilles also discusses various other issues and solutions around water management.

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

Glenn Baldwin, who is involved with the Auroville Forest Group, in a presentation on green practices gives a broad overview of the work, which has been done over the years. For the first people who had arrived at Auroville, Glenn points out, it was a very tough situation as it used to be a treeless and eroded plateau. The early settlers came with pockets of seeds from their respective countries and many trees were planted, “every tree was special and precious”.Glenn then explains the various problems Aurovilians face even now, and how they have learned and use different solutions to cope with these problems. Click here to download the presentation