Repos

Repos is the name of a beach community in Auroville which has suffered greatly in the last year.  All along the coast the sand on the beaches is disappearing, this because of a new harbour built in Pondy which stops the natural sand flows in the sea.  Sand is taken away from the beaches by currents but because of the harbour can't get back to the beach when the current direction changes.  Pondy has already lost its beach and gradually all the beaches along the coast are eroding.

This process has got worse in recent years and Repos also suffered very badly in the cyclone.  Somehow it seems to have been abandoned by Auroville and Bhaga, who has lived there for years, feels very unsupported.  I went to see her to see what was going on.

We talked for some time about the sort of ambience she is trying to create there and the difficulties of keeping the place financially afloat.  Repos has already lost quite a bit a land from erosion and Bhaga's house is now just about on the beach.  There are various moves afoot to try and deal with the erosion but it is unclear how successful these will be and I think it has to be faced that we may lose more land there.  Nevertheless I feel we should take as good care as we can of the land for as long as it belongs to Auroville.

I have some ideas but I think my next step is to talk to some other people who are involved.

It is a long time since I went to Repos and I didn't like it to the extent that I never went there again.  Now the atmosphere seems to have changed and there were more families and it didn't feel so much like a resort.  It was wonderfully cool with a lovely breeze and I felt very good sitting there.  The picture is of the sand of Repos that was under my feet.