Some People Think we can do Without Trees..

Are you able to read this news report ? Its the Times of India of 22nd April 2018, and says that 70 large, mature, flourishing Tamarind and other trees along a path in Tiruvannamalai are reported to have been injected with Acid, and are dead or dying. 

The most holy places in india are treated like this - the Maharishi Ramana Ashram is in Tiruvannamalai, near Chennai. Religiousity adhiktar ek karmkand ban gar reh gayi hai, with little link often to an inner spiritual space or good feelings or actions towards other living beings. 

Nature's beauty at its peak in Bangalore /
Apoorva Dwivedi / CC-BY-SA 4.0

Many of us forget how all life depends on trees and other natural systems. 40 % of all rain in the world is due to transpiration by trees and plants on land – only the remaining 60 % is from evaporation from oceans. Less trees means less rain inland, away from oceans. Already, the Ramana ashram had no water for visitors and had advertised them not to visit last summer.

As we begin to remove tree canopy and replace it with roads, parking lots, driveways, homes, and even grass, we immediately have impact on groundwater, streams and lakes. With the increased amount of impervious surfaces, water runs off the land, traveling with speed on the surface towards the streams. It has little opportunity to soak into the ground. This leads to flooding, stream bank erosion, loss of fish habitat, and decline in water quality. This is what has been happening in the deadly floods of Chennai and in Mumbai. 

National Guard Soldiers were called upon to fight
California wildfires / The National Guard / CC-BY-SA 2.0

Trees play a critical role in absorbing greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer trees and other long established plants result in increased speed and severity of global warming. A report said that the temperature in Bangalore measured at two weather stations increased by 5 degrees C in 2016, compared to 2015. 80 % of the cities in the country have shown a significant rising trend of mean annual temperature in the last 40 years.  

We also forget that one-third of the world’s oxygen comes from rainforests and in-land plants - and only the remaining two-thirds comes from marine plants. So we want shopping plazas and roads – but are content with little water, hotter temperatures and depleting oxygen ?