Since almost two years now, the construction of another road in Auroville, the Crown Road, has already destroyed acres of 40 year old forest, along with houses. This Crown Road is still under haphazard and unprofessional construction in multiple parts of Auroville.

Now, the present Auroville Secretariat has begun work on yet another road project! In the past week, teams of workers have begun clearing some of the dense undergrowth along the trajectory of the Outer Ring Road. For now, foresters have been able to send the workers away. However on one occasion they managed to sneak into the forest and clear an area, unnoticed. We cannot trust the Auroville Secretariat and their working groups. They have on numerous occasions in the past arrived unannounced with brutal force to clear the forest with bulldozers.

No proper mobility studies, environmental impact assesments or detailed development plans have been carried out. The Auroville community has massively voted against more development of this type - and there is a court order in place prohibiting further development in Auroville until proper planning and approval is carried out. Building this new Outer Ring Road project would mean the destruction of thousands of more trees in the most protected and ecologically advanced parts of Aurovilles forests. The planned road would cut through the Revelation Wildlife Sanctuary, an essential breeding ground for seed dispersing animals, and result in the irreversible fragmentation of Auroville's precious forests.