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Journalism of Courage
Pune University has long been home to great academics but a walk by city-based ecologist Kedar Champhekar on a drizzly Saturday proved that it houses some of the city’s landmark flora as well. A crowd, which included young children and their parents and grandparents, balanced umbrellas, braved assaults from stinging insects and watched their steps over soggy ground as Champhekar turn them into tree-watchers at the university’s Alice Garden. The walk was organised by Western Routes, well-known for heritage tours to highlight the trees of Pune University.
Standing on the massive roots of the Rain Tree, a common sight at JM Road and several old parks and streets, Champhekar talked about its singular powder puff-like flowers. What few people know is that the Rain Tree also has pods that are so oily and sticky that they make good fuel for bonfires.
“We, as kids, used to pound the pods and mix it with soil to create hard balls to play cricket. Actual cricket balls used to be very expensive and these did nicely,” said Champhekar. If, while walking under the tree, one feels fine drops, it is, possibly, because of the aphids that feed on the sap and excrete droplets of sugar syrup.
The tour wove past the Putranjiva, whose fruits are strung into garlands and believed to ward off the evil eye in small children; the Copperpod, named because its young pods have a reddish hue, Shirish trees whose pods rustle so loudly that one can hear it before seeing it; the Bhadraksha, whose seeds are often used as counterfeits of the more cherished rudrakash, and the Paper Mulberry, which is problematic as it is an invasive species that is native to Polynesia, the Philippines and other parts of south Asia where they are used to make paper and are a part of local artwork. As for the Peepul, it is considered to be holy in many parts of India as well as a haunt of ghosts in several regions.
Enlivened by quizzes, anecdotes and science, the walk shed light on problems of the forest. The Lantana bushes that are proliferating at the university are a challenge to control. In many forests, these bushes have taken over entire forest floors and resulted in elephant migration and loss of bird numbers. The politics of sandalwood is equally difficult as mature trees are rare and protected by law, thanks to years of rampant smuggling.
“Sandalwood needs to grow for at least 25-30 years for the wood to start having the fragrance. It is the core of the wood that creates the fragrance. Even from a big sandalwood tree, you get very little fragrant wood and oil. That is why sandalwood is so expensive, much more than gold,” said Champhekar of the university’s young sandalwood tree.
He gave the guests a trusted tip on understanding trees. It is to experience them with different senses. “It’s important not just to look at a tree but to understand its smells and texture and hear the sounds that it makes,” he said before the journey ended at the grave of Alice Richman, who died of cholera in 1882, and rests amid the trees.
