By Bharati Chaturvedi:
If I told you that some trees are more suitable to plant in your city, village or locality, you’d probably already know that. It’s intuitive, as the work of artist Joanna Rajkowska underscored. When she put up an artificial palm tree in a busy part of Warsaw, it incited a lot of laughter and disbelief. People couldn’t believe the weirdness of it all, because the tree looked real. Who would plant a palm tree in Northern Europe?
Now, we’re hearing how the many trees people plant (in their zeal for ‘being green’) are often not the best species for that ecological system. Vijay Dasmana, who is well-acknowledged for understanding the Aravallis and the scrub vegetation in these parts, says that we need to think before we plant – a reaction he had to a WhatsApp message promoting seed-balls for fruiting trees by putting the seeds in paper bags and tossing them out on barren land. This popular appeal, which I’ve received at least thrice in just one day, talks about ‘in season’ fruits- mangoes, jamuns, and jackfruit. Dasmana says, “These trees belong mostly in moist forests and need moisture, and throwing them in such barren patches may not yield much.” More importantly, they don’t belong there.
The WhatsApp conversation continued, just as it had begun – about the fruits we eat. Here’s a list that Vijay shared: Falsa, Goondi, Khirni, Ber, Daansar, Jungle Karonda, Tendu – these are the fruits people in Delhi and parts of Haryana and Rajasthan ought to be eating, if we ate local stuff. But we don’t, and we often don’t even know these names. We don’t plant enough of these trees – and so, except for Ber, we can’t buy most of these fruits. And we’ve forgotten these under-marketed foods anyway. Are we going to wait till one of these are suddenly discovered by the global health food industry as ‘superfoods’ (just like what happened to coconuts and pomegranates)?
There’s another reason why we need to re-think what we plant – and that is the issue of climate change. Native species are more likely to survive the weather conditions because they are able to adapt to the searing heat and the frosty cold, with the monsoon in the middle. Sure, it’s possible that no plant is ready for the impacts of climate change yet, but those which are suited to a particular ecological system are likely to be more resilient. If we want a green cover in the future, we have to plant correctly now.
It’s hard to find saplings for these plants, but some people are beginning to try and grow them. The Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurgaon, for example, has a nursery, but naturally, it’s restricted to the local plant species. Struggling to create a nursery should be part of our community effort wherever we are, because otherwise when we want to plant, our options are likely to be restricted to planting the wrong trees or nothing.
I believe that since state governments are the biggest tree-planters, we should push them to plant ecologically-relevant trees (and shrubs). The idea of fruiting trees should be expanded, and citizens have to stop expecting a standardised notion of ‘pretty’ roadside- and park-planting. Not that I am against planting Basil or some vegetables – but when we plant for the sake of greenery, why not make the extra effort and get it right?