Expert professor believes that creative city planning can save trees in Bengaluru
BENGALURU: Given a chance, Harini Nagendra would fill the city with trees. But she also understands the practical issues riddling the situation. The professor of sustainability at Azim Premji University believes we can save a lot of trees if we are a little creative in city planning. However, according to her, it’s not completely impossible to get the green cover back, and all it will take to get a greener Bengaluru is for people to be innovative.
“The Metro project is causing a loss of a lot of trees, but I know that we can get the same result by cutting fewer trees by having a slight change in alignment,” Nagendra said at a talk on the book, Cities and Canopies – Trees in Indian Cities (Penguin), organised in the city. “The second thing is that we are not thinking about compensatory planting of trees. We can plant a lot of trees in the premises of government institutes and on the sides of the roads. People should do more roof-top gardening. It cools the roof, and also reduces carbon footprint,” she added.
Bengaluru was once a hub of many exotic trees, but the count has gone down drastically over the years, Nagendra pointed out. “Somewhere in our life in the city, we have stopped understanding why we need plants. Now, when air pollution is rising and temperature is soaring, we realise the importance of having greenery in the city,” she added.
The book, written by Nagendra and her colleague Seema Mundoli, is not just a research on the varieties of trees that grow all over India. It also contains several anecdotes from the author, such as a hair oil recipe from Nagendra’s grandmother. The book is a nostalgia trip. It also mentions the rare species of trees that the country has seen.
Nagendra, who has earlier written books like Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future, said her love affair with trees is not something new and goes back to when she was a little girl. “I am a city child. When I was a kid, I used to go for walks with my parents,” she said. “We used to spend a lot of time in parks. The trees in the city shaped my love for them,” she added, talking about how her house is “very green”, with a garden featuring mango, avocado, neem, pomegranate and other trees.
Asked about her favourite tree spot in the city, she quickly picked the 350-year-old banyan tree on Sarjapur Attibele road, saying, “As soon as you enter the huge canopy, the tree transports you to a magical forest.”