Until a few weeks ago, the walk down from Statue Junction to the YMCA building offered a pristine experience. A refreshing blend of history, life, and nature. The small-leaved mahogany stood silently along the stretch, lending a vintage charm with its generous canopy shielding urbanites from the sun.
So, when the rare ‘grandma mahogany’ was felled a fortnight ago, it left many tree and heritage lovers in the city aghast. The road suddenly felt stripped, like a homestead painfully erased to make way for barren land.
The gaping base of the tree now stares at the sky, the raw remnant of a life that once stood tall and cared for the very humans who later deemed it a monsoon threat and had it axed.
“This is what we were irked about. Trees that pose a danger in the changed climatic conditions and urban swell can surely be pruned as per the requirement,” says Tree Walk convenor Anita Sharma.
“There has to be a scientific analysis of it months before the monsoon sets in, and the pruning of leaves or branches should also be done well in advance. But here, most such work happens in the eleventh hour, and in all these cases, the trees are mercilessly chopped down.”
On Wednesday, members of the Tree Walk group gathered on the road to YMCA to bid a “proper farewell” to the mahogany, which they say had been an integral part of the cityscape for “at least a hundred years”. They called it the ‘Treeless Walk’.
“The base suggests the age of the tree. There is another small-leaved mahogany tree, likely of the same age, just a few yards away from the one cut down. Protesters often gather under it during agitations. That tree, too, is very old and can be spotted in some 1934 photographs of the city,” Anita notes.
The ‘Treeless Walk’ that Anita and fellow members, including Dr Santi, Dr Radha Gopan, Sunil Thomas and C K Padmanabhan, organised saw nature lovers place posters on the leftover stump of the tree and nearby footpath railings.
“We organise such events every time a tree is cut in the city, to bid farewell to it like we would to a friend. Here too, we gathered, bid it farewell, and resolved to raise awareness about such beautiful and rare trees that have long been part of the city,” says Anita, adding that the majority of city residents are unaware of the kinds of trees around them or their value.
Anita believes a concerted effort is needed to sensitise people about the city’s tree cover and the importance of respecting it. “We had submitted a document listing rare trees in Thiruvananthapuram to the authorities, but it seems to have been ignored,” she adds.
“The new disaster management norms allow for the removal of trees that pose a threat. But what we want to know is how one determines if a tree is a danger or not? There must be a scientific analysis, and action should follow accordingly. It should not be a knee-jerk response.”
When asked about the argument that non-native trees are not ideal for climatic conditions of the region, Anita says the thought should be factored in while reforestation efforts are carried out. “What about the ones already here? We say: be respectful towards them,” she adds.
The June 25 gathering culminated with a poignant tribute as old-timers such as V S Ramachandran, Uma V, and C S Mini recited O N V Kurup’s evocative verses from ‘Ma Nishada’ in honour of the fallen mahogany.
After bidding their goodbyes, the tree lovers dispersed — hoping for a future where the city treats its veteran trees with the reverence they deserve.