“Give me land with any kind of soil, and I will make it into a forest in a few years,” says D. Saravanan of Aranya Forest and Sanctuary, Auroville, with confidence.

He speaks from experience. When Mr. Saravanan arrived at Aranya around 21 years ago, it was a barren, almost desert-like wasteland with the odd palm tree or two dotting the landscape of around 100 acres.

Located near Poothurai village, at the outer end of the Auroville Green Belt, and lying north-west to Ossudu Lake, the Aranya Forest and Sanctuary is now home to around 260 species of flora and fauna. Aranya comprises of deep canyons and rocky terrain, interspersed with rivulets joining the Ossudu Lake.

“There was nothing here when I arrived. This was the first land bought by Auroville as far back as 1964 for residential purposes. It was not being used for almost 30 years,” he says. In 1994, an Indo-Canadian project to restore the indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest of the region included Aranya in its plan.

Over 36,000 indigenous trees are said to have been planted during the first three years. Unlike other afforestation projects in Auroville, only indigenous varieties found in sacred groves and scrub jungles in the region has been used, says Mr. Saravanan. Peacocks, porcupines, snakes and birds make up the fauna of this forest. “A pair of the Great Horned Owl, which is considered endangered has been spotted here. We collected 1200 of its pellets to study the bird’s food habits,” he says. Aranya regularly plays host to research scholars who study the terrain and the fauna here.

Mr. Saravanan’s love for nature stems from childhood spent in Tiruvannamalai. An associate of Sunderlal Bahuguna of the Chipko movement, Mr. Saravanan has participated in the Save Western Ghats March of 1987, the anti-Tehri dam movement of Uttarakhand, and been involved with the Annamalai Reforestation Society.