The main aims for the Northern Forest of Auroville:

• To create a forest sanctuary for the long-term, managed collectively and at the scale of the watershed by the forest stewards of the same watershed.
• To establish a closed, evergreen forest canopy over as much land as possible in the NFA area in order to have an impact on the climate and hydrology
• To create a breeding ground for wildlife at the centre of the northern forests area, interconnected with forest corridors linking fragmented forest stands
• To maximize percolation and minimize evaporation and runoff through the increase of biomass so as to enhance aquifer recharge
• To create an environment in which the succession of flora and fauna species can advance naturally to levels far beyond the present ones in Auroville subsequently to the closing of the evergreen canopy
• To ensure that species grown in the adjacent seed-orchard can regenerate naturally in the sanctuary
• to provide an area rich in diversity to preserve the near extinct biodiverse heritage of the area and

How this is to be achieved:

This is to be achieved by transforming the area into a forest sanctuary where it will represent a core-zone and wildlife breeding ground surrounded by adjacent forests, and by establishing wildlife corridors facilitating the free movement of fauna and germplasm over considerable distances (Kamataru forest could be linked to Two-Banyans forest to the East and Revelation forest to the south).
The sanctuary is a forest in which no biomass is removed or displaced. The only involvement is in the maintenance of the perimeter fence with a narrow buffer zone, and yearly afforestation.

What has been achieved to date:

• For the last 3 years, the land has been fenced in order to protect against grazer intrusion (to prevent the destruction of planted seedlings), poaching and wood theft.
• Every year, at least 1000 seedlings have been planted during the rainy season (monsoon)
• Maintenance of the fence is on-going and constant because of a lack of funds to erect a permanent fence of granite pillars and wire. The existence of privately owned land makes it very difficult to protect the land properly as access must be left for the land-owners.
• A nursery was established to provide the required seedlings for here and in the local region.

Current situation:

During the summer, a fire went through about half of the area (no one knows how it was started, but it happened very quickly and seemed to have been lit in multiple places). It was eventually stopped the NFA stewards late in the evening. This impacted a significant number of seedlings and destroyed about three hundred meters of fence.

However, not all of them were lost as, since the recent summer rains, many of the seedlings have begun to send up new shoots from the base: Careya arborea, Manilkara hexandra, Walsura trifoliata, Drypetes sepiaria, Cassine glauca, Pterocarpus santalinus and marsupium, Pterospermum suberifolium and xylocarpum, Tricalysia sphaerocarpa, Bauhinia racemosa. The species which have made new shoots are those which are able to coppice.
The fence is being repaired.
A collectively managed NFA evergreen nursery has been established to provide sufficient seedlings for the project.
Monsoon planting will occur soon with the seedlings that are being grown in the nursery. Pioneer species will be planted in the clearings and evergreens in the shade of established vegetation of the cashew trees, acacia tree and teak tree.
What still needs to be achieved:

The purchase of more lands to:
• Control access which will discourage land speculators and reduce the rise of land prices
• create wildlife corridors between all the forests concerned
• provide access to the forest stewards who still have no access
• Consolidate land so as to reduce maintenance costs, especially fencing
• In parallel, advance the collectively managed evergreen nursery and seed-orchard which constitute two vital elements of the sanctuary forest. In the medium to long-term, species diversification in the sanctuary will be done naturally by animal vectors which will have readily available germ-plasm at their disposal.