Back in Buddha Garden December 11th - 13th 2023

This is the second day back in Buddha Garden and as happened yesterday, I am still enjoying some of the changes and despairing of others that I see.

the first thing that struck me were these two new roofs; one over the area where the soil is sieved for the nursery (above) and the other (below) over the rubbish area. Both were needed for the monsoon time as its impossible to sieve wet soil and would in any case be a very uncomfortable job in the rain even if it were possible. With rubbish - we have had the problem before and clearing up rubbish swiing in rain water is not a pleasant job.

Another lovely things to see was all the planting that had been done, especially the lettuce and roccolla which are very important crops for us during this upcoming cool season. With all the rain it was unsurprising that there is a lot of grass cutting that needs to be done. But guess what! We have a volunteer who was not only willing to do some grass cutting but knows how to use the machine, having used one on a farm in Austria where he lives.

What wasn't so good was to see all the destruction wrought by what is going to be the new road across the farm. The road will be 12 metres wide in total so a large swathe of trees and undergrowth have been removed for it.

The road will come through Shambala and it looks as if the nursery, which is the building to the right, will be in the path of the twelve metres needed for the road. Various trees and plants have been removed on the right hand side.

The road will then come down using part of Buddha Garden's recently made path plus several metres from neighbouring Siddhartha Farm. From where a lot of trees have been removed. The trees you can see which have not been removed at the top of the path are around a pond.....

....which as you can see is at the moment full of water. I have been told that there are plans to fill in the pond, which is quite deep and overflows in the monsoon. The original aim of this pond was to mitigate the flooding that happens in this area every monsoon. Quite what will happen without it remains to be seen. When the road gets to the Buddha Garden gate......

The road takes a 90 degree turn along the edge of Siddhartha farm land at the moment ending up in the middle of Siddhatha Farm. I presume it will then take another 90 degree turn right to go through the Siddhartha entrance so that it can go over the track which links up with the black top road. It seems to me a rather tortuous, but probably the only, way to go around the temple land and connect with the black top road.

We have been told that the farms will be needed for car parking but there is no money for relocation. I have requested alernative land but all that has been offered are plots of land that are too small for all our activities or land that is already being farmed by someone else and does not have space for Buddha Garden.

December 12th

Today we saw someone in the Auroville planning department. I was shocked when he told me that the road will not have much traffic as it will not be used by the public, only by VIP's. Two or three vehicles in a day will be a busy day for this road. I cannot understand why there is all this destruction just for the very few people who will use it. He confirmed that even although the road will not affect Buddha Garden too much the whole area has been earmarked for a 'service node' - i.e. a place for workshops and also for car parks etc. needed to service the nearby Visitors Centre. He didn't know what the time frame is for this transformation is to be but it could start in a few months or maybe in two years time - he didn't know. He suggested that we should start moving the farm sooner rather than later and after hearing of my problems in trying to do this offered to set up a meeting with people from a group who may be able to help....

So we wait and see. Hopefully I will have some updates on next week's blog.