Most of us have had this experience of seeing trees in our neighborhood being mercilessly cut down in order to build a house or a public building or to widen a road. Describe any such experience you have had of the felling of a tree you were attached to, with reasons for your special attachment to the tree.

For once, I had planted a mango tree in our backyard space when I was just five years of age. It was a mere experiment that I had tried out after being influenced by the “Vanmahotsava” program organized in our village. With years, the tree grew up, strong and stolid. After returning from classes, I used to water the plant and sit under it o narrate my lessons and experiences of the entire day. The tree wouldn’t speak except for the slight slouching and movement of its branches caused by the wind. I would take that as its consent t my words. Years went by and I had to leave my place for higher studies. In the holidays I would return with my secret diary to sing my studies to her. She never disapproved of me. A year later, our backyard space was confiscated by the municipality to widen the roads and had the tree uprooted. Huge machines were brought to displace the tree from its home. In thus world, it’s not just humans who are being displaced by natural and man-made calamities but nature too, that has to tolerate the indecencies and brutality of people.