Now, don’t miss the trees for the wood

The recent decision to declare 16 trees — individual specimens, not the species — in Delhi as part of the city’s heritage is a capital idea as it honours their long, silent service.

‘If only they could talk’ will be a thought going through many imaginative minds when they see the proposed signboards informing people about the specifics of each tree — all in south or central Delhi — as well as its ‘historical’ value.

If Peter Wohlleben’s opus, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, is to be believed, however, they can. And they do. In fact, they are pretty garrulous and quite busy. Yet, most people regard trees merely as the sum total of their parts: flowers, fruit and leaves for consumption or potions and wood for fuel or building material.

Wohlleben’s contention that trees in groves and forests are actually considerate creatures, waiting for their ‘elders’ to pass on before reaching for the sky themselves should be enough to shame at least a few of our own species.

That trees manage to ‘travel’ (via flyaway seedlings and pollen-bearing insects) while remaining deeply rooted, is another quality that the human race could contemplate, well, aping. Their need for company and community — a desire to live and grow together rather than alone — is probably the most important life lesson of all. Trees cut us to size.