Succcess Sanctuary was started in 1996, and has developed and grown into an area of 170 acres of forest and canyon land – mostly to the north of the Forecomers canyon, with a protective buffer strip to the south. Success Sanctuary has been identified as an Auroville wildlife sanctuary area. The area contains hundreds of indigenous plants, trees, animals, and birds, including endangered species such as the Great Horned Owl, Monitor Lizard, Indian Fox, Painted Bat, Civet Cat, Porcupine, and Jackals.
Due to historic deforestation, local species had largely dissappeared from local habitats, but with the care of Success Sanctuary steward Rik, in the last decade the local fauna has appeared and thrived.
Studies suggest that tropical forests are remarkably resilient in regenerating. If left without interference, a small slightly degenerated area can fully self-restore in a few decades, including regenerating fully biodiverse plant species.
Read the article HERE.
Within two decades, patches of secondary forest can regain important characteristics and functions of the original forest, such as soil fertility and a significant amount of carbon stock. This is dependent of having the areas adjacent to the regrowing forest also be fully healthy forest, or similarly reafforested areas under care. In areas bordered by fully functioning forests, while full plant biodiversity can return in as quickly as 25 years. animal species can take up to 120 years to fully inhabit a newly grown forest.
With this data in mind, it is remarkable what biodiversity Success Sanctuary has achieved, in not more than 35 years! Looking at the conditions, it is likely that this accelerated return of animal species was made possible by the Sanctuary being part of the largest contiguous and oldest area of reforested land in Auroville, bordered by Ravena, Newlands forest, whose isolated plots where joined together 20 years ago, and Forecomers.
Over 340 indigenous plants have been reintroduced. Many of them rare or threatened. About half of them are seedproducing now . The contiguous forest area has become a virtual gene bank for future forests of Tamil Nadu and India. These native species are evergreen and slow growing, so future decades of development are required for a fully stable biodiverse flora and fauna to take hold and sustain other adjacent areas.
The ecological work extensive bunding and planting over 200 native tree species is also benefiting the area south of Pondicherry . The contiguous forest area of Newlands, Forecomers, Ravenna and Success is the only coastal area without saltwater intrusion north and south of pondicherry all the coastal wells are saline.
Most of the Forecomers plots were bought in the late 1960s under the guidance of The Mother, in the southmost tip of Auroville. The area was marked by a wide canyon running through the land.
According to Deborah and Bob Lawlor, who settled there in 1968, it was “dramatically beautiful, though by far the worst farmland, the area around the canyon that Mother then named Forecomers.That name was not only given to the area. She also referred to us as ‘the forecomers.”
As the first to settle on Auroville lands, Deborah and Bob had to face many challenges. There were no roads to Forecomers. Access was through fields. The first month, Bob and Deborah commuted cross- country from Pondicherry each day to build their storeroom. With no water, they used puddles in the
canyons to mix the cement. By June of 1968 they inhabited their storeroom as temporary living quarters. An artist and a ballet dancer set amidst the wilds, a somewhat anomalous image.
They were helped by Sellakannan from Edyanchavadi, and his son Dhandapani, who later became one of the Aurelec trustees. They worked the land; bunding, building check dams, and planting every day with workers from the surrounding villages.
“When we finally got a well and had a bit of a garden,
we offered the first fruits of the harvest to Mother and brought them to her room. Her smile was radiant. She was just wonderful, and said ‘Continuez!’” When later Roger Anger asked Deborah and Bob to move to Auromodele, she sent them a note: “Stay where you are.”
They stayed and continued to work the land. In an attempt to slow the enormous surface runoff from the monsoons, tests were done with growing saplings.
A nursery was required, and in October of ‘71, Success Tree Nursery began as the first reforestation unit in Auroville. Since this time, neighboring Ravena, also has a nursery, helped whole area grow into the luscious green forest that it is today. The work continues – maintaining fencing, check dams and spillways, planting trees, and raising the next generation of saplings for planting in and around Auroville.