It has now been three years since I visited Haiti where I first discovered Sadhana Forest, a reforestation and sustainable community living project now active in three countries. Last year I got a chance to visit and volunteer at Sadhana Forest India, the place where the NGO first started in 2003. The main goal of Sadhana Forest India is the reforestation of South India’s indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest, but over the years Sadhana Forest India has also become a model for sustainable community living. Sadhana Forest is one of numerous communities located inside the experimental township of Auroville in South India.
Reforestation and water conservation
Sadhana Forest was founded by Aviram and Yorit Rozin who came to Auroville to find their own Sadhana or spiritual path. At Auroville the Rozins discovered the need for reforesting the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests (TDEF), a type of forest that is native and unique to the region but almost completely deforested since colonial times. On December 19th, 2003 Sadhana Forest was founded on 70 acres of barren land on the outskirts of Auroville in order to bring back the TDEF.
Water conservation has played a crucial role in the reforestation efforts of Sadhana Forest India since day one. The land receives a lot of rainfall during the monsoon season, but since there were no trees the rainwater runoff would flow through the land and into the sea without soaking into the ground. Water conservation works at Sadhana Forest India have included building trenches, bunds, swales, gabions and dams in order to retain water and reduce water runoff from the land. As the land retains water better, the planted forests can survive better and start to naturally regenerate. These water conservation efforts have also replenished the natural underground aquifers and raised the local water table considerably, which in turn has helped the farmers living in the surrounding area.
Sadhana Forest gets its tree seedlings from a nursery in Auroville and more than 150 indigenous species have so far been planted. Different types of soil around the land means that certain trees thrive better in certain areas and hence they are planted more in these areas. The vast majority of the trees planted are found naturally in the indigenous TDEF, but Sadhana Forest has also planted some non-indigenous but naturalized trees that fix carbon from the air into the ground. Restoring the forest has also restored habitats and indigenous animals have already started returning to the land, including civet cats, foxes and mongooses.
The trees planted are drought-resistant and only need to be watered for the first few years. Sadhana Forest has also experimented with different ways of planting trees, for example planting in heaps instead of pits and using wick irrigation with bottles and string. Once a year the soil around newly planted trees is mulched, or covered with a thick layer of leaves that provide nutrients for the tree and protect the roots and earth from the heat of the sun, thus helping retain moisture. Thanks to these efforts the survival rate of planted trees has been more than 80%.
Sustainable community living at Sadhana Forest India
The founders of Sadhana Forest originally envisioned a small community living on the land, and volunteers started showing up just five days after the project began. Over the years Sadhana Forest India has developed into a model for sustainable community living with an ever-changing community of international and Indian volunteers, some staying for a couple weeks and others for several years.
The community of Sadhana Forest is defined by its core values: SEVA or selfless service, working on the land, veganism, non-competitiveness, unschooling, zero-waste, human unity, non-violence, and a no drug policy. Community members can learn and share about the importance of these values during weekly core value talks. According to the principles of gift economy for example, Sadhana Forest gives to others and hopes that others will support the project in turn, which is why Sadhana Forest won’t rent out its huts to make money for the project but instead lets people stay in them for free.
From these core values other projects have emerged alongside reforestation, including the weekly Eco Film Club that screens environmental documentaries and also includes a tour of the campus and a free vegan dinner. Last year Sadhana Forest also opened a tea hut that offers free vegan chai and sweets to any visitors, fostering a relationship with the neighbours while demonstrating the gift economy in action. Nearby, the Goshala cow sanctuary provides retired dairy cows a place to live out their days in peace instead of being slaughtered.
One of the core values of Sadhana Forest is unschooling, which has developed into an alternative education program that encourages children to learn through curiosity, with adults supporting rather than directing the learning process. The Children’s Land was created at Sadhana Forest India in 2009 in order to provide a safe space where children can learn in a natural environment and develop a sense of ownership and relationship with land. The children have the freedom to choose what they want to do; they may water the gardens, plant trees, draw, cook, build things from recycled materials or anything else they can come up with.
All of this is run by the community of international and Indian volunteers staying at Sadhana Forest India, and anyone can simply walk in an participate in the work or community life. During my stay there were 30-40 volunteers, around half of whom were staying at least a year, but during the high season the community can be home to around 100 people. Volunteers are the ones who plant trees, take care of the forest and maintain the community, while at the same time learning and gaining environmental awareness. As one volunteer phrased it, Sadhana Forest doesn’t just grow forests but also people.
