Cities and canopies - Harini Nagendra

So I lately started reading this book and it talks a lot about how the importance of nature in the city. Nature not in the sense how we perceive it but nature in the way that itself is allowed to evolve in the context of city. Nowadays we see the green and blue turning into concrete and city life is deprived of trees whereas once upon a time a city was known for its trees.

Trees are used for numerous reasons and thus trees that are big give more benefits than the small thus putting them at more risk. But little do we know that the tree is the only living thing that has seen the evolution of the human being and the context around it. Trees are filled with information of varied generations and the only way to protect them is to protest.

Essentially cities are a ‘khichri’ of trees, a fascinating mix match of multifarious species of trees coming together but that was not the case in our past.

India was ruled by multiple rulers and every ruler had their own set of trees and as and when they started conquering more and more land, they started bringing a variety of trees that were not suitable for this climate but just because of the fact that they wanted them, new species were introduced. This disrupted the native species of plants of that region.

Jamun is an example of a tree that is native to Indian context and also a lot of historical significance. One of the stories dating back to the time when ‘vishwa purana’ was written is about a story of a place called ‘jamu tweep’ which bore elephant sized fruits and in turn there was a river that was created once the fruits fell down from the hill.

Another significance in the Hindu myths and beliefs is that Rama and Sita feasted on these fruits and even Karthikeya started his ‘yatra’ under a jamun tree.

Jamun was considered a sacred tree until Babur invaded India and changed the significance of jamun tree to mango and bananas. The acidic taste was something that Babur did not relish and thus he changed it. Unknowingly jamun has a lot of health benefits to one’s health. And it’s not only the fruit that has the health benefits but also the bark and the leaves.