Living Comfortably In A Tropical Forest!

We offer our course participants accommodation in a variety of lodgings, all situated in Evergreen Community, Auroville. These range from a 'regular' brick and cement room to 'hut-like' structures, built with local techniques (called 'capsules' in Auroville jargon). We offer dormitory, double and single sleeping spaces.

The capsules are of different styles, but all are constructed out of only natural, local building materials, such as palm leaf, thatch, wood, bamboo, granite pillars, coconut rope, mud, papier mache etc. All sleeping spaces are screened with mosquito nets and have been constructed taking air-flow and natural ventilation into account. Fans are provided for the hotter months.
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Apart from the 'regular' shower and toilet facilities, there are also composting toilets on the site.

Our focus is eco-friendly, beauty and comfort. We aim to provide an experience where sustainability need not lead to discomfort or compromising of one's aesthetic tastes, rather, our campus has been created with the idea to utilize nature's beauty and practicality to its utmost, resulting in structures with minimal impact, while maximizing sense exploration.


THE FOREST
Soil, Saplings and Simplicity

Convergence is housed within Evergreen community, which forms the nucleus of Evergreen forest. The entire site comprises 22 acres of land, of which approximately 70% is forest land.

A cashew plantation is scattered across much of the forest and each year we harvest the organic nuts, process and package them by hand and sell them within the larger community of Auroville. The income goes toward sustaining the forest.

The reforestation project running in Evergreen (and in many other Auroville communities) focuses on the re-introduction of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) species. This is a local species of forest trees, most suited to the local soil and climate. Twice a year, during monsoon time, we prepare the land for planting, by digging holes and composting, and approximately 1,500 saplings are planted annually. Some of these saplings are cultivated in Evergreen's nursery and others in other Auroville communities.

Many of the new TDEF saplings have been planted under the existing cashew trees where the soil has been enriched by these trees. As the TDEF saplings grow, the cashew trees will die out and a TDEF forest will emerge, replacing the cashew plantation.

Other than the bi-annual planting and annual cashew harvest other forest work includes maintenance of the fence (largely a natural, live fence of local thorn bushes), bunding, culling of dead trees, clearing parasites, seed/sapling collection, mulching of newly planted saplings etc. Our forest manager, Erumalai, is a passionate forester, a true inspiration and a most enthusiastic guide.