Around 200 years ago the Auroville
Plateau, where Pitchandikulam is located, was covered in scrub jungle and herds of elephants roamed the
area. During the 1820s trees were felled to drive away the tigers. The
last remaining forests were cut down in the 1950s for timber to make
boats. Today the indigenous vegetation of the area, the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF),
is only found in isolated reserve forest patches and in small remnant
sacred groves around temples. The first Aurovillian settlers found the land dry and desolate; prior
to 1973 only a few scattered palm trees were found in the area and the
traditional dryland farming of peanuts and pulses had degraded the soil
leaving deep eroded gullies. In that year, restoration processes were
set in motion using green manures to rebuild the soil. Live fences were
created to protect the land from goats and cows, and pioneer species of
acacia, leucaena, gliricidia, and eucalyptus were planted to provide
windbreaks and shade. At the same time seeds and other plant materials
were introduced from nearby remnant patches of the almost extinct Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. Now Pitchandikulam is a peaceful sanctuary of self-generating forest with a wide diversity of flora and fauna.
More than 800 species of plants can be found in the sanctuary forest,
grasslands and ethno-medicinal gardens. Pitchandikulam Forest is now actively engaged in a seed propagation nursery
from which endangered medicinal plants are established in the
sanctuary and other locations within the Auroville bioregion where plantations of TDEF have been set up. .
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