PUDUCHERRY: The electricity supply at Auroville, which had stopped at the first signs of cyclone Thane approaching, will not be restored for about two weeks as over 30 high tension and all low tension were destroyed. According to Auroville outreach media, Auroville, which was in the midst of Thane’s direct fury, saw thousands of trees uprooted, houses, schools, offices, industries and public buildings damaged due to heavy winds and falling trees. In the Auroville forests, more than 70 per cent of the trees fell. At the Auroville beach communities, the situation was judged worse than during the 2004 tsunami, with high waves compounding the damage caused by falling treesWhile the Matrimandir itself was not damaged, some branches of the banyan tree were broken off and in the Matrimandir gardens and around it, many trees fell down. Similarly, the gardens of Savitri Bhavan, the visitor’s centre and Bharat Nivas suffered heavily, though there was no damage to the buildings. In the Sadhana Forest and Sve Dam communities, all the keet houses were fully destroyed. In the new Luminosity community, the louvers of the new building got warped in the winds, leaving the glass windows behind it to face the full impact of the hurricane. The Samasti and Grace and Surrender communities saw the destruction of almost all beautiful ornamental trees. The tile roof of one of the houses in Madhuca blew off while in Certitude, a couple narrowly escaped certain death by leaving the house a few minutes before a tree fell on it. The Auroville farms suffered heavily, with one farmer complaining that 40 years of work had gone as fruit trees got uprooted and crops got severely damaged. The office of Upasana suffered a direct hit from a falling tree, while the office of Auromodèle Atelier was narrowly saved with the tree falling in front of its entrance. At the villages around Auroville, the damage is no less. The landscape which Auroville had been cultivating over the last 40 years has been disfigured and mutilated.The work of clearing the main roads and making an inventory of the damage began. Chainsaws being in short supply, residents were seen using ordinary saws and small blades, trying to clear the entrances and internal pathways of their communities. Certitude was heavily hit, with most of the eucalyptus trees that line the entrance road having fallen. The well-known eucalyptus grove, opposite the turn to Samasti, no longer exists. Some of the Aurovilians living in the greenbelt had literally to hack their way out of the forest. Some communities suffered from the lack of water supply. On a first rough estimate, the immediate emergency relief would need Rs 4-5 crore (approximately US $ 1 million). The estimates for long-term rehabilitation and restoration would run into a multitude of that. The detailed assessment will be undertaken after the emergency phase is over.The Auroville community has made an appeal to friends and well-wishers for financial help by making donations for Auroville Cyclone Relief.
Comments
0 comment