I Planted A Chilbil Today....

There used to be a beautiful forest in Delhi you know. Full of trees like Acacias, Albizia, Amaltas, Rhonjha, Dhak, Khair, Kachnar, Chilbil, Ber, Goolar, Jamun, Arjun and the list goes on. Then the British in a misguided effort to beautify Delhi introduced Prosopis juliflora commonly known as Mexican mesquite or more colloquially Vilayati Kikar. 

This Vilayati kikar like the 'Firangs' who introduced it soon took over Delhi's forest cover. It being a hardy, tolerant species adapted too well to the Delhi conditions. With it's tiny foliage and spiny branches, deep roots and numerous seeds, it propagated too fast, too much and in the process starved the native species of sunlight and water, made the ground cover disappear and the soil all sandy and useless.

It took decades before people woke up to the nightmare and realized the extent of ecological damage that this Firang plant has done. But they did wake up and slowly, steadily started replacing this Vilayati keekar with Delhi natives.

Today I was part of one such initiative where hundreds of Delhites came out early in the morning, braving the blanket of smog suffocating the city, to plant some native tree saplings in a green corner of Delhi called Tilpath Valley. The silent bushy forest was today hearing hopeful laughter and cheerful chatter of people who have come to transform it. I was part of that crowd. The holes were dug, saplings were brought, water cans were all filled up and ready to go.

We trekked along a sandy road to reach into the heart of forest. There, I climbed down a mound of hill and went deeper. As I walked through the forest, my each step covered my boots in layers of dust which would soon become life force for the trees we were gonna plant. As I walked deeper and deeper drop by drop my heart got filled with the hope for a better future with purer stable environment.  And in that deep hidden corner of forest's heart was where I planted a Chilbil today.....

...I planted a Chilbil today...