{"id":2845,"date":"2021-04-01T09:28:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T04:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/?p=2845"},"modified":"2022-05-06T13:13:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T08:43:21","slug":"ecological-restoration-paul-from-botanical-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/01\/ecological-restoration-paul-from-botanical-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecological Restoration: Paul from Botanical Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Auroville Botanical Garden is your one-stop destination to learn about botany and horticulture. If you like to walk among beautiful greenery, or volunteer to keep a wide range of gardens blooming, this is the place for you. We spoke to Paul, who has been at The ABG since the beginning and who is still running the show today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Bigger Project<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

The Botanical Gardens started in the year 2000, when a group of people came together to revive an empty piece of land. \u201cAuroville had bought a 50 acre plot of land and around this time, Walter, AuroNavy and I had an idea to start a botanical garden. We approached Auroville and asked if we could start a botanical garden on these 50 acres. There was a selection process, with other suggested ideas for the space. Somehow it was decided that the Botanical Gardens could be started there, and that\u2019s how it began. It was an idea that Walter from Shakti had been carrying for a long time. He was in Auroville right in the 70\u2019s and tried to start a Botanical Garden in Shakti, but stopped because he didn\u2019t feel the land was big enough. I studied forestry and ecology before I came to Auroville. After being in Auroville for about 10 years, working in the forest with the native species of trees, I was ready for a big project. He initiated the whole idea and it was something that I sort of bought into. So when this land was bought, I said \u2018Hey, why don\u2019t we do it here?\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the idea really was to create a place that people could visit. Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to visit places in Auroville to see what\u2019s going on with the green work and the forestry work. We could then explain these things to visitors and school groups , teach them about the native species, or how to make compost or grow vegetables. Today, local schools come here on a regular basis. They spend a day here and we have a program that about 100 schools a year come to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n