India's Living Green Atlas

When one is among the trees, as Mary Oliver wrote, it is a reminder to never hurry through the world — but to walk slowly, and bow often. S. Natesh’s beautiful book embodies the spirit of this poetry and roots it within scholarly acumen to produce an extraordinary canopy of arboreal history.

A lifelong student of botany, Professor Natesh began campus tree walks at the National Institute of Immunology while working there as a consultant. His increasing curiosity about other remarkable trees in India was countered by a surprising scarcity of existing information. Thus, despite being “on the wrong side of 65, without a supporting team or grant”, he embarked upon a seven-year journey to visit every potential iconic tree in the country. Leeches, muscle cramps, and theft did not deter him: “Despite all this, I would not dream of trading any part of the sheer thrill and excitement of finding an age-wizened arborescent centurion or gentle ligneous giant.”

Nordic mythology has the Yggdrasil, and the oldest trees in the world are named after the Biblical Methuselah and Greek Prometheus. In India, there are sacred trees in every city — alongside ongoing tension between biodiversity and urbanisation.

The Introduction in the first section of the book notes that developed countries can afford to value their trees, while others sacrifice natural heritage at the altar of ‘progress’. In a land of indigenous biophilia, returning to public involvement could help revive our natural affinity for green surroundings. Scientific documentation is necessary too: radiocarbon dating is uncommon in India, but dendrochronology informs us about the intertwined networks between human and environment.

Section Two is an overview of the 75 titular trees in all four directions. North India features Kashmir’s ‘chinar’, derived from the Persian word for ‘fire’, patronised by Mughal emperors Akbar and Shah Jahan around Srinagar and across the Jhelum in Bijbehara by Dara Shukoh. The evergreen conifer Deodar of the Chaurasi Temple in Himachal Pradesh continues to be a focal point for the annual Manimahesh Kailash yatra. In Uttarakhand, there are two peepal trees: one planted by Mahatma Gandhi in 1929 in old Rajpur, and one reputedly planted by Sarojini Naidu at the Clock Tower Ghanta Ghar. Kintoor in Uttar Pradesh is home to the mythological wish-fulfilling kalpavriksha in the form of ‘Kunti’s Parijata’. There is also the Khirni tree of Chirag Dilli in the Dargah of Hazrat Naseeruddin, the Bodhi tree of Bihar’s Bodh Gaya, under which Siddhartha Gautama found enlightenment, and the Vibhitakah baheda tree in Madhya Pradesh, which marks the geographical heart of India.

To the East is Sikkim’s Coronation Cypress of Norbugang, where Lhatsun Chembo’s wooden walking stick is said to have grown into the Tchenden tree now part of the Khangchendzonga National Park. Kolkata’s Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden is home to the oldest resident of the city: the 240-year-old Great Banyan Tree, which has survived cyclones and lightning to spread over nearly 2 hectares of land. In Assam is the fragrant white jasmine of Bekhor Bēngana, which has lent its name to the village where it stands and several institutions within it. Japfü Peak in Nagaland has a scarlet rhododendron Nithu tree, which is as tall as a nine-storey building. The roots of the India rubber tree (Ficus elastica) in Meghalaya’s Nohwet have been shaped into unique natural bridges by locals over centuries as a marvel of ancient green-engineering. Manipur is home to the ‘Departure Tree’ chitebu kaji, linked to the primordial mother Dziilimosiia and symbolising the historic unity of the Naga people.

The Golconda baobab in Telangana has eight stems and predates the construction of the Naya Qila by a century. Andhra Pradesh’s desert village Gootibylu features the largest plant on the planet, revered as Thimmamma’s Marrimanu, under whose expansive shade the temperature drops a few degrees. There are boababs and banyans in Karnataka too, besides blue gum nilagiris in the Nandi Hills, a tamarind grove in Nallur, and the jacaranda and white silk cotton tree in Bengaluru, amidst ubiquitous raintrees. Aerial roots identify Rumph’s fig tree in the cellular jail of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as distinct from the peepal tree it is commonly misidentified as. Another cruelty of colonial history is reflected in the lone rosewood tree standing in Tamil Nadu’s Anamalai Tiger Reserve, whose companionate forests were stripped for lucrative trade. Teak too had been felled indiscriminately, and the task of re-cultivating it was assigned to the then magistrate of Malabar, HV Conolly, who was able to accomplish this due to the diligence of one Chathu Menon.

From South to West, we reach the Rayan tree of Rajasthan’s Ranakpur atop a three-storeyed Jain temple - the same species as that under which Adinatha too is said to have become enlightened. The ‘chalto ambo’ walking mango tree in the early Parsi settlement os Sanjan, on the banks of the river Varoli in Gujarat, has spread itself eastward through each drooping branch, becoming a new root. Maharashtra hosts two ancient mahogany trees in Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda area whose planting is attributed to the Scottish explorer David Livingstone who visited in 1865; there is also the Ajanvruksh of Alandi where the 13th-century Bhakti Nath poet-philosopher-saint Dnyaneshwar is said to have chosen sanjeevan samaadhi; in Pune are Peshwa Shrimant Bajirao II’s mango tree topes, a peepal tree in Shukrawar Peth where the freedom-fighter Umaji Naik’s body is said to have been hanged by the British, and the frangipani temple tree on Parvati Hill which blooms with sweet flowers throughout the year.

And this is not enough as a summary of the book, which still has other rich offshoots. There are quotes from environmental leaders and a QR code for further references. This is a book to be carried and cherished for its loveliness and inherent, infectious conviction that our trees constitute our civilizational heritage and deserve corresponding respect.

There is now a plant species named after Professor Natesh - Aponegton nateshii - in a well-deserved honour. When asked for VoWels magazine what he would like to be remembered for as an author, the Professor responded with the following line: “As someone who made India’s plants and trees the heroes of the story instead of the backdrop, one who made people look at our floral wealth with interest and appreciation, even reverence.” With this book, that hope is sure to be realised.