On 28 April 2022, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued an order allowing Auroville Foundation to continue the implementation of Crown Road project in Auroville, but with some caveats. Following this, the Auroville Foundation razed two houses in the township.

Auroville is a cultural township spread over 20 square kilometre across Tamil Nadu and northern Puducherry. Its residents include citizens from around the world. It enjoys a special autonomous status and is governed by the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988. It's day-to-day management is run by the Auroville Foundation, which in turn functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

The conflict in Auroville Township started on 2 December 2021, when the Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC) sent an email to the Youth Centre informing them that the work on clearing the 16.7m ‘right of way’ would begin in a week. However, the ATDC started felling trees to make way for the Crown road project on December 4. Several Auroville residents gathered on the spot to protest the tree felling.

The Crown road project is a part of Auroville's Universal Township Master Plan – Perspective 2025. The layout of this plan includes a circular inner ring know as the 'Crown', 12 radial roads and an outer ring. Stretching over a length of 4.3 Kilometre, the crown road has a right of way of 16.07 metres wide. This road has been planned as a key part of the township that will provide service facilities to its different zones. As per the current plan, the Crown road will pass through forest and river catchment areas, and involve felling of trees in Darkali and Bliss forests in Auroville.

The Master Plan was first prepared in 1999 by residents of Auroville and approved by the Resident's Assembly under the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988. The Governing Body of Auroville felt the need to consult planners for that plan at the state and national level. This resulted in the formulation of the Universal Township plan in 2001. This was approved by the then Ministry of Human Resource Development and Auroville's Governing Body. It was however not submitted again to the Resident's Assembly for its approval. The plan was finally gazetted in 2010 by the Auroville Foundation.

The implementation of this plan adopted a greater pace in 2021, marked by felling of trees by the Auroville Foundation. This occurred despite several concerns raised by Auroville residents, and a decision made by Auroville's Resident's Assembly to stop all development on the Crown road. The pressure to complete the project comes at the heels of the recent appointment of a new secretary to the Auroville Foundation by the Union government. During this period, Auroville residents who have been protesting the implementation of Crown road, proposed an alternative alignment for the road that would bypass two water catchment areas and the forest. But the Foundation did not take accept the proposal.

On 10 December 2021, the NGT issued a stay order against further felling of trees. However, residents alleged that digging of trenches went on till 18 December, 2021. In its order issued on 28 April 2022, besides permitting the Auroville Foundation to continue with the Crown Road project, the NGT stayed all constructions in Auroville and directed the Auroville Foundation to prepare a proper township plan and obtain Environmental Clearance for it. The NGT also established a joint committee, which was expected to submit a report in two months on ways by which the number of trees felled may be minimised.

Sandeep Vinod Sarah, one of the two petitioners who approached the NGT, told LCW that at least 50 houses and many other buildings in Auroville are identified in the Crown road project and face the threat of demolition. "No authority other than the Residents' Assembly, or a body given authority by it, has the power to ask residents to shift from a place. But, there is a blatant misuse of power by the [Auroville] Town Development Council and the Secretary of the Foundation," he said. "We are currently awaiting the report from the joint committee appointed by the NGT. However, in the meanwhile, the Foundation has been taking up levelling work and laying high-tension cables in parts that were already cleared, before the status quo order arrived, in violation of the Residents' Assembly's directions."

On 14 December 2023, the Supreme Court of India, in an interim order on the appeal of the Auroville Foundation against the NGT judgement of April 2022, ruled that it was of the prima facie opinion that this direction was outside the jurisdiction of the NGT, and stayed it till further orders. The Supreme Court's stay order means that the Auroville Foundation can proceed with the project as per the Auroville Master Plan. The township estimates that only 0.16% of the trees in Auroville will need to be cut, and that most of those are invasive species.

Some Auroville residents say they want to find a way to develop the project without disrupting the environment and allege that the Foundation and the Town Development Council have misused their power.

In January 2024, the resumption of tree felling for the Crown Road project triggered another round of protests by a section of residents who allege that the process is being undertaken in an “arbitrary and unsafe manner”. However, a spokesperson for the Auroville Foundation dismissed the charges as unfounded, saying that the entire operation was being carried out under supervision of designated teams, in compliance with law, and with reverence to the master plan.