- March 18, 2026
IIT Madras and Annapurna Farm... a short update
Unexpectedly, around February 18, there was an engineer of the PWD (Public Work Department) on the farm path asking for the main gate to be opened because they had to bring in equipment to start the soil testing for a boundary wall for the IIT campus. At the same time, Auroville Town Planning Department made a call with the same request.
They say they will make 25-30 drilling holes of 10m deep (or less if they hit limestone rock) to take samples to calculate soil bearing capacity for foundations to come. It has been agreed that they will not enter fields or plantations and will work on the fence line only. Things are being handled in a friendly manner since these are just contract people who are hired to do a job.
They work with a small team of 4 people (from the north of India) and a very rickety setup and do one drilling hole per day after which they drag their little platform (without wheels) to the next site. They will be on the farm for a month or so.
A few days later more information was forthcoming from the PWD engineer. His name is Vijay Kumar, and he is the assistant engineer in charge of this phase of the project. The planned wall is projected to be installed some distance inside of the periphery fence, in order to leave an access road for whoever is going to get the last 35 acres on the NW corner of Annapurna. It remains to be seen if, or how much, the wall will impact on the crop fields, for the extent of 5.5 km.
Then Vijay’s superior provide some more details. A tender to build a wall will not be issued before all information on the soil testing is finished. This will take a month or two. The superior did not know if development on the land will be pursued in parallel to this work. He said he’d try to find out.
Picture : Drilling for soil samples by PWD for IIT campus
It seems that the Auroville Foundation OSD has made them believe that we have been given an alternative location and he was taken aback that this is not the case and he will check that out too.They agreed to give us all info needed to be able to work together as good as possible. We told him that we do not agree at all with this project but will cooperate since we have no choice. They were happy that we had invited them for this talk and have more clarity about the situation.
Then on March 4 we got the following news;
Dear Community,
We received the following update with the request to share it with the community:
On 19 February 2026, an Indian Aurovilian filed a Writ Petition in the Madras High Court against the lease agreement signed between the Auroville Foundation and IIT-Madras.
The case was heard on 27 February 2026 and the Hon’ble Judge granted an interim stay in the matter. The order prohibits anyone claiming to be carrying out actions on behalf of IIT-M under the lease agreement from interfering with the farm and the property, and restrains them from taking any coercive actions until further and different orders are issued from the court.
Thank you to all those near and far who are supporting Annapurna Farm and trying to save it from destruction.
In service,
The Working Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly
Anita, Elvira, Jayavel, Matthieu, Prashant, Raju, Valli
This was good news!
Not that we are there yet, but the court has determined that our petition is legally valid and they are looking into the matter and that is a step forward. We hope that some sense will prevail after all.
In the meantime, we keep doing what Annapurna is meant for; farming the land and growing healthy food for the community…
Much love,
Annapurna Farm team,
Amy, Andre, Madhuri, Tomas.