Have you ever seen a ghost tree? If you ever get a chance to visit the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai, look for it. Also known as the Kulu tree, it stands out during the day on account of its white bark. But at nightfall, in moonlight, it glows.
What makes it special is that its bark undergoes photosynthesis. And this tree, along with the 800 flowering plants in the forest, is under threat.
A number of proposed infrastructure projects and encroachment by a growing populace, according to conservationists, are threatening to carve out chunks of the forest. The projects include widening of highways on the borders of the national park, a tunnel that goes right through its heart, and a ropeway that'll run above it. All of these, ostensibly, are meant to reduce the strain of traffic on the city's infrastructure that is splitting at the seams.
The trade-off is not even worth considering, Anish Andheria, a conservationist and biologist, told BloombergQuint. The administration, Andheria said, could possibly justify these projects by talking about public good, and by saying that the trees that will certainly be felled to make way for development will be replanted or replaced. But a forest is more than just the trees that it contains.
Most people worry about the trees, but unless you have a biodiverse forest, just standing trees won't help. There is an umbilical cord, figuratively speaking, between trees and biodiversity. So when you talk of a forest, everybody should imagine that it is a forest with species of plants and animals.Anish Andheria, Conservationist And Biologist
Stalin Dayanand, a conservationist and the head of non-government organisation Vanashakti, pointed out that the projects are all conceptualised with the idea that the forest is a land bank. This, he said, is a misguided approach.
These projects cannot be talked about in isolation, because while each of them might result in the reduction of forest cover by a small percentage, their cumulative impact will be much larger, Dayanand said.
The old proverb states that a kingdom was lost for want of a nail. In the near term, the sacrifice of a few trees might seem like a worthy trade off if it means you'll get home half an hour faster. But, a half hour saved now could very well lead to the loss of several years in the long run.
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