Counting trees, missing woods

Numbers, the toy with which pundits, particularly mathematicians, call them more appropriately ganithashastrajnas, have revelled themselves for centuries since vedic times believed to be of more than 50 centuries vintage, have caught the fancy of both administration and people at large in every conceivable walks of life, given the ongoing ubiquitous practice of stating in huge numbers facts and describing volatility of the country’s socio-economic image. Some examples that cannot be missed even as they flash across the minds of the avid readers of dailies and keen viewers of news channels on the small screen: a) Number of temples in the State and amounts of cash flowing into their portals, b) Number of toilets, a subject that has catapulted itself in public domain in the wake of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, c) Number of child marriages in the land, highlighting Karnataka ‘s  top rank among the States, d) Number of unemployed graduates, e) Number of suicides daily and annually, f) Number of deaths in road mishaps, g) Number of notes in the mass of currency demonetised on November 8, 2016 and so on. All numbers that the land’s citizenry have just winked at.

One is restrained, per force, to keep the number of examples in this column presenting matter relating to happenings in daily life as listed above while recognising the fact that the numbers crisply portray what has happened leaving very few to ponder over why those happenings have materialised. However, in the case of cutting down trees in large numbers for road-widening is a pathetic example of finding the answer to why.

Debates have taken place in various circles ad nauseum in the past about norms of keeping the land’s forest area at a certain minimum ratio to its total area. Going by data and information about green cover both in the country as a whole and in different regions, Karnataka fares very poorly with mistaking its shrubbery in large tracts of the State as forest. Having mindlessly chopped down decades-old full-grown trees for whatever reasons, particularly in city limits and on highways, wisdom has dawned on the administration, although belatedly, to regenerate the lost green cover by a) planting saplings of tree species that have been uprooted, b) propagation with dropping seed-laddus (lumps of mud and cow-dung with seed embedded, c) transplanting fruit-bearing trees and so on. People, forming voluntary groups, joining in the effort augurs well for them and the country.

Once again, the central point of the just begun act of greening large spaces across the country, including Karnataka, is a) the number of saplings planted and b) number of seed-balls cast-away involved in the programme. If the grandiose programme fails to germinate as it were, the answer to “why so” may not be far to seek. If it succeeds, one cannot ask for more!