Felt good to combine history, botany in my book: 'Iconic Trees of India' author

New Delhi, Sep 29 (PTI) At a time when trees are almost always the first casualty of any developmental projects, a retired botanist has sought to draw attention to 75 'iconic trees' from across India.

Documenting these iconic trees over a decade has been a labour of love for S Natesh, who taught botany at the Delhi University for close to a decade and then had a long career at the department of biotechnology, government of India.

The "Iconic Trees of India" documents 75 natural wonders -- old and ancient 75 trees of 47 species -- from 23 states and union territories with beautiful supporting illustrations by Sagar Bhowmick.

In the book, released by Roli Books earlier this month, Natesh celebrates the joys of locating "some well-known, lesser-known, and unknown iconic trees of our country and trace their links to science, people, culture, and history".

For instance, on the eve of the Namak Satyagraha, when Mahatma Gandhi picked up a fistful of salt at Dandi to defy the oppressive British Salt Act, he delivered a powerful message sitting under a banyan tree. Now, history remembers Gandhi and his salt march but few know of the 'Gandhi Vad' -- the Gujarati name given to the historic banyan tree.

"The historians never write about trees and botanists never write history. So, I decided to combine it," Natesh told PTI.

When asked how he defined an 'iconic tree', Natesh replied, "There are 60-odd definitions in the literature. But for me, it all boils down to an individual tree that somehow stands out for some remarkable, exceptional, and uncommon entertaining story; it may inspire wonder and awe and commands our respect." Although he taught the subject, worked as a scientist, and was always fascinated by plants, it was the small stint at the National Institute of Immunology, which has a beautiful green campus, that made him sit up and take notice of the varied iconic trees in India.

Natesh then travelled to scores of places and ensured a good mix of associations for religious, historical, quirky, and some downright majestic reasons.

The listing starts with 'India's oldest and the largest' 650-year-old Chinar tree inside a mosque at Chattergam village in Badgam district; and the giant Sequoia tree, which though not native to South Asia is found at an altitude of 2,560 metres inside the farm at Yarikha village of the Jammu-headquartered Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM). Natesh describes Sequia as "the loneliest tree of India".

Then there are some with religious antiquity such as the old sacred Mulberry tree of Joshimath not far from the Jyotirmath, one of the institutions established by Adi Shankaracharya, in Uttarakhand. This tree, the author describes, has stood the test of time, even a land subsidence incidence in 2023, "like the great sage's Advaita philosophy".

Another example is the four-century old 'Ber Baba Budha' on the parikrama path of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Some trees are associated with historical persons, such as the majestic Chinar of Bijbehara in Anantnag district, which, the author says was planted by Mughal prince Dara Shikoh himself in 1636.

The author's keen interest in including the diversity of reasons is reflected in his choice of 'The Tree that Hosts Million of Bees' at Ramagovindapura near Bengaluru which, he says, is a rare 'bee tree' on which up to 630 honeycombs of the Asiatic giant honeybee have been documented. Apart from actually visiting the places for each of the tree, speaking with local people and digging out historical records, the author also extensively researched scriptures for some of these iconic trees.

"If you want a particular reference for a specific thing, then you need to refer to a wide variety of books, including puraanas," he said, citing the example of the Baobabs, known as kalpavriksha or parijaat tree at a lot of places.

"For Parijat (the word baobab doesn't occur in the Puraanas), there are many stories in the Puraanas such as Bhagwat Puraan, Vishnu Puraan and Padma Puraan," he explained.

It also has several trees from northeast India, including 'The Sacred Fig Tree of the Nagas' at Makhel village in Manipur. Explaining why the book does not have any trees from states such as Arunachal Pradesh, where there still are patches of primary forest, or the central Indian forests from Chhattisgarh/Jharkhand/Odisha, the dandakaranya of the yore, Natesh rued how most of his travel plans were eventually nullified due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

But Natesh has not just stopped at documenting the green beauties, and has even come up with recommendations for the government and the society at large.

For instance, his book highly recommends involving people as just having legislation alone won't be of any help.

"Building consensus through public consultation and scientific documentation is how it can be done," the book suggests as it gives examples from across the world of similar attempts such as the 'Champion tree register' or the 'Heritage trees register' that many developed countries have.

But before everything, a consensus needs to be developed on what should be called an iconic tree, says Natesh, who hopes that his book will inspire others to write more stories about trees in general "so that our growing curiosity of our bio-cultural heritage reinforces our desire to protect all biodiversity". PTI NPK MG MG MG