Sadhana Banana

Sadhana Forest provides in theory unlimited supply of bananas for volunteers. On most days this is true in practice as well. After working for a few days I realized the virtue of bananas. Sadhana volunteers powered by bananas work in their first seva. The work includes but not limited to :

• Carrying water buckets
• Planting trees
• Collecting leaves for mulching
• Collecting top soil
• Scooping up compost
• Mixing top soil and compost
• Have fun

Bananas pack lot more energy than I previously thought.

Bees & Termites (2)

Working in the bees & termites team involves climbing

Preventing unwelcome advances from the termites is mostly ground work. But dealing with the carpenter bees is a different paradigm altogether. It involves plenty of climbing - sometimes quite high and in challenging corners - on the huts' main structure. This calls for physical and fitness and decent level of dexterity.

Two parts of the epoxy compound

Epoxy is being mixed

Epoxy mix is ready to be used

A hole in hardwood pole

The hole after patching with epoxy

The instructions are simple. Find a bee hole, climb to reach it, then seal it with an epoxy sealant which you or a fellow volunteer mixed for you a few minutes ago. Oh, and be careful not to lose your grip.

The sealant is obtained from the local market as a two part epoxy compound. Its soft and pliable like putty during and soon after mixing. Becomes stiff like plastic in about 10 minutes. Very convenient. But also expensive and probably not very good for the environment. I saw room for improvement here. Experimenting with alternative materials - environmentally friendly and cheap ones, of course - seemed to be an effort worth undertaking.

Bees & Termites (1)

Jacob, a sadhana forest volunteer in bees & termites team

Protecting the huts from ever active termites and carpenter bees is a daily challenge in Sadhana Forest. Bees & Termites team bravely accepts this challenge as a regular maintenance job in Sadhana.

Carpenter bees like to drill hole to make nests in the hardwood poles of the huts' main structure. If not prevented, the bees can hollow out an entire pole to bring the hut down. While bees attack from air, termites have a ground up approach towards the huts. But the end results are pretty much the same.

Local knowledge says that termites don't like walking on granite surface. So granite columns are used as base for the huts. Vegetation around the huts are also cleared regularly to prevent alternative path for termites to reach any part of a hut from ground.

Living Quarters in Sadhana Forest

Dorm for Sadhana Forest volunteers

Indigenous Tamil style huts are the ubiquitous accommodations of Sadhana Forest. Some huts have second floor or small attics too. Most volunteers in Sadhana Forest gets to sleep in dormitories. The dorms are basically large huts. There are three dorms at the time of writing this, two of them are two stories. Long term volunteers get special treatment, they live in their own huts.

The sturdy huts made of hardwood, and coconut leaves and ropes are quite impressive. A big opening in the front serves as door. Usually the huts come with multiple opening on the side, all triangular, serving as windows. This allows plenty of wind to pass through in all directions.

Going to Sadhana Forest

Sadhana Forest main hut

After volunteering in Blue Light ( the de-facto IT department) for a few days, I felt that the human connection, supposedly abundant in Auroville, was missing. I decided to try out other options. Sadhana Forest have always intrigued me; its a reforestation project with the goal of reviving tropical dry evergreen forest of Tamil Nadu. Besides working on the forest, they also have a living community people practicing vegan life style. They offer tours and show environmentally conscious movies on Fridays. I decided to try it out.

So, on the first Friday of January, I went to Sadhana forest. The tour gave ample exposure to the project, their ideals and practices. Discussing with long term volunteers at the project and the founder, Aviram, helped more. By the end of the dinner, I was convinced that this project offers a nice blend of spirituality, connections, learning and collaborative work environment.

I joined Sadhana Forest on the next Monday, 7th January.