Heritage trees ( another assignment)

I think that I shall never see

a poem lovely as a tree.

….

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree!



(-Poetry, A Magazine of Verse

By Joyce Kilmer)



If we cannot make a tree

We immortalize it in poetry,

While God makes us a tree,

We make it history!
 
-Me



When nature becomes a part of history very specifically, trees are earmarked as ‘heritage trees’.

“Every country has its heritage trees - old trees, wide trees, tall trees, rare trees, "weird and wonderful" trees, and trees with historical and cultural significance.” describes a heritage tree protection website. The movement to protect trees that are linked to cultural memories of people and local histories of people illustrates the coming together of history and the environment in a very unique way.

Recently the Karnataka heritage society began a project to identify and protect trees that were designated as heritage trees. The most notable heritage trees are the banyan and peepul as they often are very old (mark the passage of time) or are very huge. Heritage trees are trees which are exceptional or notable for a variety of reasons, such as;

1. Veteran trees of great age and antiquity

2. Trees which are closely associated with our culture or history

3. Trees of exceptional size and record dimensions

4. Botanically rare or unusual trees

5. Trees associated with historical figures

6. Named trees

7. Trees which form part of historic landscapes



The heritage tree movement traces its conservation from the Romantic Movement of conservation started by John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club in 1892. Jesse Hoskins in the same year protected 90 acres of old-growth Giant Sequoias by homesteading and residing in the base of the Hercules Tree. Many cities and countries have heritage tree preservation movements both for nature conservation and as sites of historical events. Some environmental organisations have taken on heritage tree preservation in Bangalore and even have a tree walk in Lalbagh to identify rare and unique trees.

On one hand there is the need to preserve trees as a part of the urban greenery; on the other hand what is evident is that trees become place markers for events and spaces. Trees are planted by VIPs, trees that were planted by historical personalities (such as Tipu Sultan) all become “Heritage Trees”. Why is it that trees become markers of history?

This is not a new phenomenon in a nation where trees have symbolized events for a long time. The Bodhi tree where Buddha attained his enlightenment or the Asoka tree forest where Sita was imprisoned - all form a part of the cultural memory of the subcontinent’s people.

Yet the new wave of planting trees by VIPs is different. The tree is not the symbolic discourse or a representation of a cultural or religious event but a spatio-temporal marker, indicating a particular place and time. It does not, like a foundation stone, remain an unfading testimony to a visit or an event in the past. It doesn’t even automatically carry the name of a VIP like a cited plaque. Instead it grows only sometimes marked by a short-lived board that says ‘planted by so and so’. It is instead marked in the memory of the people, passed down through the medium of oral and written histories of landscapes— “This tree was planted by the prime minister.” The growth of the tree strengthens the memory of the person who planted it, a living testimony to an event. In the same conversation is also included, the whole value accorded to planting trees as an act of altruism (as the kings did in the days of the yore). In one tree-planting ceremony multiple discourses are captured − History, environmentalism, gaining merits (Punya) as well as privilege of the land on which such an event has occurred.

Public trees that were not planted very specifically by VIPS or kings also share the historical memories of people for their everyday life. The banyan tree bus stop or the old house next to a peepul tree functions as space-time markers for people. Here the marking is more spatial than temporal. The tree provides a background for the events to occur. The tree under which the chatwallah sits or the bus halts would be an example. In that sense it goes back to the original symbolic meanings that it would have for people like the Bodhi tree or the Aswattha (ficcus) tree.

What is interesting is how nature as trees become history and history becomes nature in the construction of the discourse of Heritage trees. In this interaction between human memory and nature we cannot deny that there is a strange symbiosis of Human and nature, each preserving the memory of the other. Not that the tree remembers of course, but by its very presence it becomes a dynamic pneumonic for the human.

Last but not the least, in the development plans for the city in Bangalore a number of trees will be cut. What is being ultimately erased is history- history that is not written in pages in print but history that is written in the landscape in the memories of people. People forget soon and it is trees that acted as mute reminders. When the tree is no more, the history around it would also be no more.

this is a part of an academic paper I am writing and so please donot directly copy this material any where.