Farm forums and social activists held a one-day token fast in Puducherry on Friday, opposing the Auroville Foundation’s proposal to hand Annapurna Organic Farm land to IIT Madras for a sustainability campus focused on green energy technologies and innovation.
The protestors said the proposed land transfer threatens Auroville’s ecological vision and its long-standing work in organic farming. Annapurna is described by the protesting organisations as Auroville’s largest pioneering organic farm and a contributor to the township’s food security for decades.
The farm is also associated with the late organic farming scientist G Nammalvar, who trained there. The protestors said the decision to take over the farm formed part of wider concerns about land exchanges and what they described as “high-handed encroachments” within the Auroville township.
The protesting farm forums submitted a 15-point charter of demands. Besides asking the Auroville Foundation to drop the proposal involving Annapurna, they demanded the cancellation of land exchanges carried out after 2021 against the wishes of the Auroville Residents’ Assembly. They also sought action against people alleged to have been involved in corruption.
In a statement, the Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Pathukappu Sangam, or Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Protection Association, said a series of decisions since 2021 had raised concerns about Auroville’s founding vision, land, ecological work and residents. The organisation said the future of Annapurna was particularly important because of the farm’s contribution to sustainable agriculture and food security.
The Auroville Foundation’s proposal, as described in the report, is intended to support a sustainability campus by IIT Madras. The source material does not provide details about the proposed campus’s size, project timeline, funding arrangements, construction plans or the exact legal structure of the proposed land transfer.
A statement issued by Auroville residents working in various services, working groups and administrative bodies disputed the protestors’ allegations. The residents said challenges relating to Auroville’s planning, administration and land transactions had already undergone judicial scrutiny. They said important legal challenges, including proceedings concerning the Annapurna lease, had been dismissed.
The residents characterised the campaign as an attempt to use external pressure to obtain an outcome that its proponents had not secured through legal proceedings. They also argued that Auroville’s land, institutions and collective work could not be subordinated to individual possession, personal preferences or pressure campaigns.
According to the residents’ statement, people using Auroville Foundation property by permission are permissive users and cannot claim ownership or an unrestricted veto over institutional decisions considered lawful. The statement said the township’s future should not be determined by what it called personal grievances, accusations or campaigns.
The competing statements place the Annapurna dispute within a larger conflict over how Auroville’s land should be administered and how ecological institutions should participate in decisions affecting the township. The next steps concerning the proposed transfer, the farm’s operations and any further legal or administrative proceedings were not specified in the supplied report.
