Mission Green: Spotting landmark trees to conserve the greens

Bar-Ness looks around for interesting trees — either because they are historically important,of religious significance,or are just plain interesting to look at and have a story to tell. “Nowadays even people in cities who don’t know much about forests know things like the neem tree is good for medicinal purposes; they know you can eat jamun; everybody knows mango trees,” he says. “But there are few people sticking up for the botanical origins,in the sense using them for science education.

“I am trying to step away from the utility aspect of these trees and use individual trees as ambassadors for different subjects of science.”

One such tree that Bar-Ness has identified is an old peepal tree at the junction where the CP Inner Circle meets Barakhamba Road. He calls it the 4.30 tree,with good reason too: “If Connaught Place is one big clock dial then this tree comes in at 4.30. If you look at the aerial photographs of the tree,it is obvious that they very carefully dug up the Barakhamba Metro line to ensure that the tree survives.”

The 4.30 tree is the largest tree left standing in CP. “Thousands pass by the tree every day. May be they can take a moment to think about the tree cover that used to be in CP and assess whether it was a good decision to cut down those trees to build the Metro.”

Another tree that has made to Bar-Ness’s landmark list is a 600-year-old khirni tree in the dargah at Chirag Delhi. “That tree was apparently planted by Nizammudin,who died in 1356. That’s a landmark in the sense it’s been around long before Delhi was recognisable.

“So,it’s a historical landmark.”

Bar-Ness also believes Delhi is more aware of its green cover than other metro cities in the country.