According to an analysis by Down to Earth of the environment ministry’s advisory committee records, more than 2.8 million trees, on forest land, were approved for felling or recorded as felled across India between July 2023 and May 2026. About 90% of this felling has happened because of mining, hydropower and rehabilitation projects. Where efforts are being made to increase green cover in the country, we are starkly falling short. A recent study published in the journal Environmental Research Communications, which examines eight major government policies and programmes and their impact on tree cover, finds that only one showed positive associations with tree cover. Essentially, most government efforts are ill-informed and falling short. The more we consume news about this war against trees, the harder we fight. Until we can’t anymore. Until we’re exhausted and depleted. Writer and wildlife scientist T.R. Shankar Raman’s book The Trees of My Country: A Natural History of India in 50 Trees, with illustrations by Manali Patil, is a balm for those tired times. The book doesn’t try to advocate for trees or talk about their functionality and importance to human life. It doesn’t talk about why trees are needed and all the bad that will happen if trees are gone. It doesn’t make excuses on their behalf. The tactics tree lovers normally use to try to get the unaffected to care about trees are all thrown out the window. Here, trees deserve to exist because they are living beings. That’s reason enough. In not…This article was originally published on Mongabay
