Summary:
Naaz Ghani ByExpress News ServiceCHENNAI: The sound of leaves rustle in the cool breeze enveloping the entire forest. “It took us nine years to recharge the forest ecosystem and makeover this place.” Till 1988, the forest — on Poothurai Road, 20-odd km away from Puducherry — was an unoccupied piece of land, caught in court cases. “We received funding recently from Auroville as well as the government of Tamil Nadu to maintain and showcase the forest. You cannot plant seeds just before the monsoon and expect them to grow, they will flow away. It is a process of growing an ecosystem and not just a plant,” Saravanan says before taking the students for an excursion into the forest..