Plants are the lungs of a nation
It is often said that plants are the lungs
of a nation. This is truer in the modern context of India
The loss of trees and flora has been immense
and is sparsely documented, though we have records of loss in forest cover and
so on. What has happened to the neighborhood banyan or the omnipresent peepul
is not of concern to most. The nation’s tree consciousness is on the wane.
Trees face two challenges in the modern
world with less care - the first is
during the infancy stage when any living object, be it a tree or a child is
susceptible to effects from the environment. Trees in the forest or in a
neighbourhood are likely to have minimal survival chances. In the forest, it is
the elephant or the deer or the cowherd with his band who don’t pay heed to the
small sapling being crushed. This predicament in the forest which is their
natural home is part of the long story of creation when the weak or the unlucky
died out for they could not compete.
Nature had a way of ensuring that the best
survive and that rule was followed. However, currently it seems that only the
trees follow this rule for the forest has shrinked and the cowherd has a lot
many cows and cattle to feed, there are now more people walking in the forest
to meet their needs from the shrinking resources that growing population and
restriction of choices has brought to them.
Nowadays, more and more trees die
out before they reach their maturity and it may be because of the sum total of
all the above factors or it may the churning of the cycle of creation, whatever
it is, trees are on the run, literally. A tree in its infancy stage in a rural
