Voices of the trees of the cities
[This piece draws its roots from the previous article In Forests Trees Fall , and focuses on the trees particularly of cities with an insight into their existence; their past, present, and, if ever bleak, the future.] I faintly recall the last time I clambered up a tree to fetch a juicy fruit – it was probably more than fifteen years ago, in the heart of a wooded city which was then less a city but more than a town. When I was a kid, I was told that our co-operative housing society boasted largest number of trees of the city – indeed it did, for it was also supposedly the largest co-op housing society of Asia. It had old, really old – some over 25 year old trees; if they stood today they would be nearing their half a century of existence on this planet. Fortunately, a few still stand. And all these trees were, as I later came to realize, exotics – Gulmohar ( Deloix regia ); Copperpod ( Peltophorum pterocarpum ), Rain tree ( Albizia saman ), and Subabul ( Leucaena leucocephala ). ...