Home


Crowdfunding Countercurrents

Submission Policy

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

Editor's Picks

Press Releases

Action Alert

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

About Us

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name:
E-mail:

Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

 

 

 

Trees Speak

By Anitha S

22 February, 2014
Countercurrents.org

I am the Clammy Cherry. I have been growing for over 2 decades in one of the most crowded of localities in the Thiruvananthapuram city – the East Fort area. But never once have I felt the dust and heat, the fumes and suffocation. It could be because my roots are deep in the vast and wild soil of the 3 acre plot of the Attakulangara Central High School which has been here for 125 years. It feels good to look out and see more than 100 trees growing all over the sprawling campus. Though the school has seen better days, it is so comfortable to hear the feet of the children, feel them scamper up the branches and pluck the clammy cherries. I love it when the boys squeal with excitement as the gum of my fruit sticks on to their tiny fingers. They call me Pasamaram or Pasakkamaram.

Near me grows the green and shiny leaved Alangium which like me is native to India. I shed my leaves often , fruit throughout the year and have many moths and butterflies visit my flowers always. I think we were planted here years back by someone who knew about our medicinal properties. The extract from my fruit relieves cough and lung infections while the roots and fruits of Sage leaved Alangium is used to cure rheumatism and hemorrhoid. The Alingl can also be use externally for bites from rabbits, rats and dogs. I remember a time when the school had a very productive vegetable garden with cucurbits, peas and chilly. I liked the time when teachers and students came out to tend the plants and harvest the crop. There was also a garden full of flowering plants here which was looked after by the students and the teachers. Those were the days when there were more than 2000 students studying here.

I grow along with the strong and silent Rusty Shield Bearer or Peltoforum that has yellow flowers. A month back this friend flowered so profusely that the fragrance of the thick carpet of yellow flowers lingered for days. It is amazing that the flowering of the tree almost always befits its name – the Yellow Flamboyant. The shiny copper colour of the seeds which glisten in the sun makes this tree The Copper Pod. In front of me is the famous Gulmohar also known as the Flamboyant for its striking red flowers. Though an endemic of Madagascar the tree has spread all over the world. I have felt that the Gulmohar finds its tough to bear the wind and rain here. Its branches break often. Last monsoon the branches of Alangium along with some of mine broke and fell down with fruits and leaves.

To my side a bit far off but in view is the Indian Tulip tree. The light yellow flowers with a maroon central part changes to purple as it ages. The tree grows with a very special twist and turn. Sometimes children come and break its tensile twigs as a cane- how slow they walk back to class with the stick, wary of what is waiting for them!

The school campus has some of the largest of Raintrees in the city. With its umbrella like canopy, the Raintree has started to flower. To see the pink flowers amidst the green leaves is a beautiful sight. Though a native of neotropics, the Raintree has been introduced all over the world as an avenue tree.

As I look over my own canopy, I can see the thin and drooping foliage of the She-oak or Common Iron wood or Casuarina in the garden. This fruits of this tree almost like a cone attracts the children who collect it and throw at each other. As I look ahead, I can see a huge Ficus tree at the end of the playground. The children swing from the hanging roots and there is a palm also growing inside it. There are trees like Mango, Jack, Polyalthia and Ashokam in the campus. There are also small plants like Ixora, Vitex and Barbados cherry.

The trees around me had to face a terrible experience a month ago. For a few days, 48 of us belonging to over 15 species which have been growing unhindered for so many years, releasing life giving oxygen and inhaling toxic carbon dioxide knew the footsteps of death. Many men came and marked our barks with yellow paint and numbered us. I am number 17 and my Alangium friend is 18. The huge Raintree I spoke of has the ominous number 13 written on it.

We did hear that 2 acres of land from the school has been given for a bus bay and shopping complex. This would mean trees will have to be cut to make way for the buses. The old school building will be demolished. A huge wall will come blocking our view of the children and their pranks. We are so glad to be witness to all the play and laughter of young children. We will have to inhale more and more noxious fumes. The humidity so essential for us to carry on photosynthesis will be reduced with the heat and dust of the vehicles and concrete. We will be unable to effectively carry out the most significant of ecological services –that of producing life supporting pure Oxygen for all living beings.

We know that in our presence, the temperature comes down by 5-6 degree centigrade on a hot day. By the process of evapotranspiration we bring down the heat especially reducing the Heat Island Effect so typical and unbearable as more and more areas come under concrete, glass and steel.

Recently a team of men came to evaluate us and put a price tag. We wondered how much we value in terms of money that seems to be the single largest factor driving the human world. I know that people who want to protect us have calculated our value in rupees. For me it seems absurd to say that if I am cut, you will lose so many rupees worth of oxygen , x rupee worth of Clammy cherries and glue or so much bark and seeds that will cure the painful dog bite on your knee. But if this kind of valuation will help me live for one more day inhaling the poisonous gases, taking in the sunshine, absorbing moisture and exhaling the cool and pure oxygen, then I am able to understand the calculation. Like wise if this will help human beings remove the yellow paint and number from our bodies and decide to protect the Raintree grandmothers, the stately Casuarinas and Polyalthias, the slender Indian tulip and the sturdy Copper Pod then it is worth all the trouble.

Now we hear that of the 48 trees marked, only 10 will be cut. Which are the 10? Who will decide the ten? Will I be one of them? I am still a young tree and have many more years of life. I do not want to be chopped up so soon. But as I look around, I do not want any one of the 16 species to be cut and moved away.

These are my thoughts on a morning after an evening when summer rains cooled the city. I stand in the fading moonlight with my leaves cleansed of the dust all ready to absorb the energy of the rising Sun. I know there are many people in the city who care and love me. I hope they will stand for us, their tall green friends.

Anitha.S with students, teachers and trees in the Attakulangara Central High School before the Rakshabandhan for Trees program on 23rd Feb 2014 at 10 am. For details of Tree Walk, contact 94470-78113

Photos by Veena M and Suresh Elamon

 



 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated